


Clipped Wings

by Incarnadine92



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:46:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25186606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incarnadine92/pseuds/Incarnadine92
Summary: Ruby's led a hard life for the past five years. Yang and Blake are trying her best, but so far haven't seemed to make any headway in helping the girl out. She's been on a path to self-destruction, and things seem to be spiraling downwards for Ruby - until a chance encounter with the heiress to the richest family around changes everything.This story is being hosted simultaneously on here, and FFNet[[ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]]
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 50
Kudos: 181





	1. Caged

Sitting on the corner of a rooftop, with the city lights stretched out before her, Ruby sighed contentedly. Out here, in the midst of the concrete jungle that was the City of Vale, was where she came to clear her head. The youth had never liked the wide open spaces that suburbs or the countryside provided. But this? This was home to her, in more ways than one. The background noise of city life was cathartic to her. The footsteps of a thousand people making their way to and fro, the growling of a hundred engines as they snarled in gridlock traffic, voices, chirps, honks, and everything else. All of the things which a 'normal' person would find annoying, instead brought the red-tipped brunette, a measure of peace.

With a groan, Ruby rose to her feet. Though the drop before her was three stories, the seventeen-year-old was steady. Heights had never bothered her, and the rush of adrenaline that she got from being in such a precarious position far outweighed any risks in her situation. But, she wouldn't tell Yang or Blake that, no use getting into another argument - especially since she was on thin enough ice with them anyways. Then, as if on cue, the phone in the pocket of her faden and slightly torn jeans buzzed with an incoming notification.

'Dinner's almost ready. Coming home tonight?' The screen read. While Ruby was inclined to just ignore it, she felt that Blake at least deserved a reply. She might have been fighting with her sister, but Blake didn't need to be a part of that.

'Already ate, thanks though. Might be home later.' Was her terse reply. It was true, if not probable. There was always a chance that Ruby might make it home that night. But, for a while now she'd much preferred to be alone. Though Yang had accused her of it once, in one of their fights and in a moment that her older half-sister had instantly regretted, Ruby didn't hate her family. She just.. Needed to not feel so surrounded. Yang and Blake meant only the best for her, Ruby recognized that, but it made her feel so smothered sometimes!

Her phone buzzed again, but Ruby didn't even look at the screen before shoving the device back in her pocket. With practiced ease, she spun and stepped off the ledge to drop the three-and-a-half feet back on to the rooftop. Hands jammed in her hoodie pockets, Ruby made her way over to the door that would take her back to the streets.

...Or, it would, if she could get the damn thing to open. "Shit." Ruby muttered under her breath. Two, then three, then four more tugs did nothing to grant her access to the building. "Great. Just great." She griped, and looked around at the surrounding buildings. The rooftop she'd jumped from to land on the one she currently stood atop was a few feet too tall for her to jump back to. While Ruby considered herself a pretty decent free runner and climber, she knew that the odds of her actually making the jump and pulling herself up without falling down to the streets below was.. Slim, at best.

What's more, she was in one of the slums of the city - a good chunk of the buildings here hadn't been updated in decades. As Ruby suspected, this was one of the many that didn't have rooftop access to the fire escape, which meant she really only had one option left. The apartment on the opposite of the one she'd jumped from was just about the same height as the one she was on now. A couple inches difference, but that was negligible in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that gave Ruby pause was the fact that she wasn't in an area she usually explored.

There was no telling where she would end up at the end of her nighttime adventure. The next building might have an unlocked rooftop door, or it might not. Sure, Ruby could have made herself comfortable enough to get some rest and hope that someone would come up in the morning for some fresh air or a smoke, then let her down, but she was never one for waiting. Better to push ahead and see what she could make of things, despite the uncertainty of it.

With that last, lingering thought keeping her going, Ruby quickly stretched out her muscles before starting to run towards the unknown. One foot in front of the other, her pace quickly reaching a sprint. She needed to build up as much speed as fast as she could, before pushing off into a jump that would carry her across the gap. Luckily, this was far from Ruby's first time flirting with the dangers that came with a three-story drop.

With a bend of her knees, a satisfied grin, and a roll to help absorb the impact of landing on concrete, she was across. With a practiced fluidity, Ruby popped back up to her feet to go see what kind of mischief she could get in to.

***^v^***

"Anything yet?" Came a concerned voice from the kitchen, along with the telltale beep from their oven to say that the shepherd's pie was ready.

"No, nothing." Blake answered. She and her girlfriend Yang - Ruby's older half-sister - had been living together for a few months at that point, and things had been.. Turbulent, to say the least. She and the vivacious blonde got along perfectly, but when they had to deal with Ruby's antics, on what was becoming a depressingly regular basis, things grew strained.

The raven-haired young woman knew that the youth had her share of issues, a penchant for running away among them, but damn if it didn't worry the rest of their little family to no end. She glanced one last time at her phone, where the last message remained sent, but unread.

'Okay.. Stay safe, we love you.'

Blake knew by that point that Ruby would answer if and when she felt like it, or would unceremoniously breeze in the front door if she felt like gracing them with her presence. Deep down, she knew that thinking that way was unfair to Ruby. Her childhood had been upended, she'd had her teenage years taken from her and replaced by a need to just.. Survive.

Yang tried her best, and Blake always marveled at just how much she went out of her way for Ruby, but the girl continued to defiantly go her own way. Blake knew her partner well enough to see how much it tore her up inside, and desperately wished there was more she could do to help with the situation.

She left her phone on silent, resting on a short table beside the couch, and made her way to the kitchen. Blake smiled warmly at Yang, sitting across from her and trying to put her worries from her mind. "Smells gre-" "I just do-" The girls spoke at the same time. After her tiny blush faded, Blake picked up her silverware and nodded at her partner. "You first." She said soothingly, though she already suspected what was on her mind.

"I just.." Yang sighed, and ran her palm across her left cheek to clear up a couple of drying tears. "I.. Well, 'we', try so fucking hard, Blakey." She managed to get out, the exasperation clear in her voice and the exhaustion clear on her face. "What are we doing wrong?"

After chewing and swallowing her food, Blake set the silverware back down and met her girlfriend's eyes. "Remember what Dr. Mott said?" She asked. About a month ago, after a lot of thinly veiled threats and the proverbial gnashing of teeth, Blake and Yang had convinced (forced would be a more accurate word) Ruby to see a therapist to help see if there was any way for them to help Ruby with her issues and for them to come together as a real family. "Trying to force her into a routine, or to impose stricter rules, will just drive her away."

Gently, Blake reached across the table, over the table setting where Ruby would sit when she was home, to take the blonde's hand. "You're doing great, I promise." Blake soothed, running her thumb over the back of Yang's hand before retracting her own hand. "We just have to be here for her when she comes home. Besides.. It's been two days now, she'll have to come home for a shower sometime if nothing else." She pointed out, and nodded at Yang's plate. "Now eat up, it'll get cold if you don't."

With an amused snort and a roll of her eyes, Yang finally looked down at the meal she'd made. "Yes, mom." She muttered teasingly.

***^v^***

With a groan, Ruby blinked the sleep out of her eyes and rubbed the crust out of the corners of them. She yawned, stretched, and rolled on to her back to look at the sky. The early morning sun greeted the youth from the left, and so Ruby rolled to the right as she got up, if only to spare her eyes for another minute.

She grunted, stretching her back and popping her neck as she shook the dust off of her clothing. Ruby had spent the night as she usually did, on a rooftop, surrounded by nothing than the dirty city air, the noises that came with it, and her own thoughts.

Ruby had made sure to end her night on a rooftop that at least had a sturdy set of pipes leading down the side of it, and so getting back down onto the city streets was no issue. Pretty soon, she was weaving her way back towards her usual stomping grounds.

Along her journey, Ruby used what little bit of money she'd managed to scrounge up - doing odd jobs and various tasks from anyone who seemed like they needed a hand - to get her hands on some spray paint. Normally, Ruby preferred to just walk and think, but today, she had a plan.

The city had finally finished construction on a brand new high-rise tower, and Ruby was on a mission to be the first to stain the white brick it was built of. Along the way, various ideas crossed her mind. It wasn't often that she got to be the first to do something - whatever she came up with would have to be good.

By the time she hopped over the railing of the adjacent parking deck, after checking to make sure that no one was looking at her, the beginnings of a scene were firmly rooted in Ruby's mind. And so, she took a deep breath, and began to give her vision shape

***^v^***

After a hellishly busy morning, Weiss was finally able to push her chair away from her desk and sigh. Meeting the staff and her 'co-workers' had taken far longer than she thought necessary, and she'd just wanted to get to work. Then, as if enough time hadn't been wasted, it quickly came to her attention that neither the water nor the internet was properly working for parts of the office. By the time everything was in working order, it was the early afternoon.

After making her was swiftly through the office on the eleventh floor, Weiss got in the elevator (thankfully empty) and hit the button for the ground floor. Once she was truly alone, the girl let out a slow breath while collecting her thoughts. Weiss wasn't stupid. Far from it, in fact. She was a straight-A criminal justice major student at one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, a fact which she took a lot of pride in.

Still.. A nineteen year old had no business working in a law office, unless they were a receptionist or secretary. But a manager? Weiss saw the looks that people had been giving her that morning. Some bemused, others annoyed, but without fail everyone had a 'look' to give her. Weiss knew that it was because they all suspected how she got her position - one look at the door to the office space would confirm it. 'Schee & Co. Law Offices - Vale Branch'. Schnee. Being the favored daughter of the wealthiest man on the east coast had its perks, she supposed. But, the cost was that her father's reputation always preceded her. By default, people thought that she was a spoiled brat, a girl who only got to where she was by begging daddy for a favor.

As untrue as it was, there was nothing she could ever do to dissuade them, and so Weiss just stopped trying. She doubled - and then tripled - down on her studies, making sure that she earned every grade she got in school. In a rare show of positive acknowledgement, her father had installed her in the office of the newest branch of the firm. Officially, she was an intern, but everyone knew that with her family behind her, Weiss was the real one pulling the strings at the office.

Weiss glanced down at her watch as she walked across the lobby, and grimaced. She'd been so caught up in putting out the fires of that morning that she didn't have long for her lunch at that point. Oh well, it wasn't like she ever ate a whole lot anyways. A simple salad, maybe some fruit, and a coffee would be more than sufficient to keep her going until the workday ended.

Unfortunately, it looked like even that simple pleasure was going to be yanked away from her. Though Weiss paid no mind to the police cruiser parked partway on the curb, with its lights flashing, she couldn't as easily ignore the sight of someone flying over a fence right at her. Her ice blue eyes met a pair of widening silver ones, and Weiss stepped back just in time to avoid the sole of one of the girl's boots hitting her in the jaw.

"Watch out!" A young voice called out. The girl landed, badly, and gave out a yelp of pain as her ankle twisted under her. Still, she stumbled forwards before one of Vale's Finest rounded the corner and caught up. 'H-hey! Lemme go!" The girl snarled, struggling as she was pushed down onto the sidewalk.

Finally, Weiss snapped out of her shocked state, and could practically feel her anger steaming out of her ears. "You want me to watch out?! Y-you dolt! Do you have any idea who I am?" She shouted, gesturing very animatedly and advancing towards the now cuffed girl, before one of the officers moved to block her path and stop her.

"We're well aware, Miss Schnee." The officer said firmly, holding up a hand to ensure that Weiss couldn't get any closer. "We'll need you to come down town with us as well." She gawked up at him, and took in a breath to enunciate just how much that would inconvenience her, and how this was not the day for that, before he spoke again. "Just to make a report. Shouldn't take more than an hour." He finished.

Though her hands were shaking with her anger, Weiss nodded. She understood the protocol for these things better than most. At least it would give her a chance to get away from the office for a bit, she mused. As her would-be assailant was being loaded into the police cruiser, the younger girl gave Weiss a curious look. She ignored it for the most part, as she did with everyone else. It was her pure white hair that usually got people's attention, and Weiss had long ago gotten sick of people ogling it. "Very well." She informed the officer - Brants, according to his stitched-on nametag. "I trust she'll be charged accordingly." Weiss finished, and before the officer could answer, marched over to the parking deck to get in her car.

***^v^***

"You've got the wrong girl! It wasn't me, you're all just profiling me 'cause I'm dressed like this! Isn't this police brutality?!" Ruby shouted out, shaking the bars of the cell in the detention center for added effect. She was railing against the world, spouting off anything that she thought would help her get out of this mess.

She'd barely finished her mural - a grey, white, and blue floating city above a serene lake - before being spotted by the officer who arrested her. She knew there was no way she'd get out of this one, and grimaced. After mulling things over, Ruby's shoulders sank, and she swallowed her anger. At least for the moment.

"Can I have my phone call?" She asked sullenly, looking down at the floor.

"See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Came the clipped tone of the officer in charge of the local jail. Before Ruby could say anything, or even bite her tongue to prevent her from saying it, she was handed an old rotary phone with a long cord. "Five minutes, Rose." She was warned, and Ruby grumbled out that it wouldn't take that long.

Ruby stared at the handset for a minute, dreading what she had to do. But, she sucked it up - what other choice did she have? - and began to dial. After two rings, then three, Ruby was beginning to worry that she'd be sent to voicemail. But, when the telltale clatter of a phone being answered came through, she breathed a soft sigh out.

"H-hey Yang.." Ruby said softly, grimacing to herself. She knew her sister would be furious with her. "I, uhm.." She gulped. "I need a favor."

-^v^-


	2. Terms & Conditions

"Jail?!" Yang shouted, as the door slammed behind her. She'd kept her tongue in check during the drive to the station, and back to their apartment, but that was as long as she could manage to do so. "Are you fucking kidding me, Ruby?!" Her tirade continued, and she turned to face the younger girl who was quickly storming off.

With tears pricking the corners of her eyes - out of sheer embarrassment and anger - Ruby turned on a dime and balled her fists down by her sides. "Yeah, Yang. Jail." She practically spat. "Happy now? I'm finally as messed up as you think I am."

"What? We never thought tha- Hey, Ruby!" Yang continued, while her younger sister whirled back around and made a beeline for her room. Hot on Ruby's heels, the blonde followed, only to get the door slammed in her face. "You can be childish all you want, but we are not done talking!" She shouted through the wood.

"Well I am!" Came the reply. In her relative safe haven, Ruby paced back and forth. She braced herself for Yang's next tirade, but only silence answered her - for the moment.

"Damn it all.." Yang muttered, and checked the time on her phone. "Keep an eye on her? I have to go to work." She sighed, and looked over at Blake.

"Of course." Blake answered, and forced a small smile. "I love you." Were the last words the pair exchanged, followed by a quick kiss, before Yang left. Looking at her back as she left, Blake could see the tension in Yang's shoulders, and sighed as the door shut.

Blake had anticipated the need to keep an eye on the unruly Ruby, and had already called in to her office to say she'd be working from home that day. She was already well enough ahead in her work that she could afford to take a little time and help out with the growing issues at home.

Things had slowly been growing more tense and stressful in the apartment, and if this wasn't the breaking point, Blake wasn't sure what would be. The silence in the room was somewhat unnerving given how loud things had been, but Blake had gotten used to that as well as the arguments. The sisters arguing never (usually) lasted very long, with brief bursts of anger and resentment quickly giving way to a frosty and uneasy peace between them.

With a soft, sad sigh, Blake walked over to the teen's closed door and knocked gently on it. From past experiences, she strongly suspected that Ruby would have locked it, so there was no point trying to enter. Sure, she knew how to unlock it from the outside, but that would just open up a whole new can of worms along with the door.

"You want to talk about it?" Blake asked, leaning against the wall next to the door. "She left to go to work."

"No!" Ruby barked back. "J-just leave me alone." The girl finished, her voice slightly muffled. Behind the locked door, Ruby was sitting on the floor. With her knees drawn up to her chest, her hood drawn, and her head leaning down on her folded arms, Ruby knew how pathetic she must have looked - and that just made it worse.

"Alright, suit yourself." Blake said, and pushed herself away from the wall. "But, you really should talk to her later." She reminded Ruby, and went to go try and get some work done

***^v^***

If the day before had been a roller coaster, today was more like high speed bumper cars. Better in some ways, worse in others - but there were a hell of a lot of twists and turns either way. Though, truthfully, Weiss wasn't that fond of carnival rides - no matter what form they took.

"...There's been another delay? What happened this time; did their truck blow up?" She snapped into the phone. "Yeah. Okay, you're right." Weiss sighed into her headset. "Thanks, Coco. Call m- actually, just leave a note on my desk if they get here." She finished, and ended her call. As if she didn't have enough on her plate, the Vale Water Company hadn't finished all of their work the other day, and had to make another trip out that afternoon.

Her father wouldn't be pleased to hear about it, even though it was a necessary expense and one they had funds set aside to take care of. The business mogul despised delays of any sort, and he had a nasty habit of snapping or lashing out at whoever was the most convenient. It was a habit that Weiss hoped wouldn't be passed down.

The talk she'd had with her only real co-worker, Coco Adel, helped to soothe some of her agitation. The girl was the closest one to her in age at the office - another law student, though Coco was shadowing a lawyer there as opposed to having an actual position as Weiss did.

Walking confidently out of her office, she caught the eye of the receptionist on her way. "I have to go down to the police station to finish up some things regarding yesterday's... Incident." She said. "Please let me know if anyone calls for me in the meantime."

A formal "Yes, Miss Schnee." Followed her, though it was said to Weiss' back, as she was already on her way out the front doors. The first two days, so far, had been trying, but the Schee family had always excelled in the face of adversity - and Weiss was determined to not be the first one to blemish that perfect record.

The precinct headquarters was only a short distance away, at least by way the crow flies, but the grid layout of the city meant that Weiss spent a little time in traffic before arriving. After introducing herself at the front desk, she was soon given a visitor's name tag and allowed back to speak with the officer in charge of handling the vandalism case.

"You really didn't have to handle this personally, Sergeant." Weiss said cordially, and took a seat across from the familiar face. Breaking her usual frosty demeanor, she smiled over at who she'd gone to see.

"Oh, please. Just call me by my name, dear sister." Winter scoffed, but gave her younger sibling a sly smile in return. "Besides, I didn't take this on personally because of you... In a sense." She continued, and looked down at her desk. "Vandalism of a building owned by such a... Highly publicized family such as ours demand that I take charge of the investigation." Winter explained, leafing through her files.

"Won't it seem like our family is using the police for its own benefit, though?" Weiss questioned her sister, and got her answer in the form of a pursing of Winter's lips.

"...Unfortunately, that's something we can't avoid." Winter begrudgingly admitted. "But, I quite literally am the only resource the department can spare right now. However, enough of that." She said, redirecting things back towards the reason she'd called Weiss in. "I have some more questions about how you would like this handled. I contacted Father directly, but 'Mr. Schnee' elected to leave this matter in your hands, as the manager of the vandalized property."

Weiss sighed, and ignored the temptation to slump back in her chair. "Of course. What else do you need?"

***^v^***

Ruby had sat on the floor for so long that her joints were beginning to ache. With a grimace, she shook the stiffness from her bones and rose. Alone with her thoughts, Ruby was able to calm down after a while. She wasn't mad any more, at least not at Yang.

According to her ears, the blonde had returned from work maybe an hour ago, having left early since she outright couldn't focus on her job. Ruby's stomach twisted in knots when she heard that, thanks to the almost paper-thin wall in the apartment. Deep down, she loved Yang. Other than her uncle, who lived on the other side of the city from them, she was the only family Ruby had left.

At the moment, Ruby could hear Yang talking, but she couldn't hear Blake. Admittedly, that wasn't so odd, since the girl moved with the poise and silent grace of a panther on the hunt. Opting for the band-aid approach, Ruby slowly opened her door to peek out. The movement was enough to quickly draw the attention of the other girls' eyes, and she shied back for a second before stepping out.

"Hey Ruby." Blake said with a smile. "Want some hot chocolate?" While the raven-haired girl greeted Ruby warmly, her blonde better half grimaced slightly and turned away. Ruby was hurt slightly, but she could see the phone pressed to her sister's ear, which explained her speaking earlier and why she didn't jump on her back right away.

"Sure, thanks Blake." Ruby mumbled, looking down and away. She felt embarrassed, but not actively angry, at least right then. As Blake rose, she caught Ruby's attention and looked pointedly at Yang's back before moving away. Ruby gulped quietly at that. Blake was right, as she usually was, damn her.

After another minute of silence on her part, a heavy sigh signalled that Yang was done on the phone. Straight away, the blonde went to the kitchen to be near her girlfriend, but Blake shooed her away. "Go talk to her." Ruby just barely caught, and looked up from the floor to see Yang moving in her direction.

Ruby looked back down sheepishly, until Yang's dirty work boots and the bottoms of her grimey worksuit came into view. "I.." The girl started, but didn't get a chance to even really start before being pulled into a bear hug.

"I love you, Ruby." Yang said softly, and squeezed her sister tight. Ruby was frozen in place for a few rapid heartbeats before wrapping her arms around Yang's taller form in return. "This has to stop, though. All of it." Her voice was calm, but firm, and when the pair stepped apart, Ruby could see no trace of hostility in the depths of her lilac eyes.

Ruby squirmed under her gaze, but was saved by Blake walking over with her promised hot chocolate. Ruby had always had a sweet tooth, and the steaming hot beverage was one of her favorite things. She accepted the mug with a small smile and a grateful nod, then turned back to Yang.

"I know, I know.." She whined, and nursed a long sip from the mug. "I just don't know where to begin, y'know?" Ruby said, and was answered with a slow nod from her sister. Blake was seated on the couch again, laptop seated on top of her thighs, fingers typing away. If Ruby paid attention to her, though, it was obvious that most of Blake's attention was still focused on the sisters. She'd had to play peacekeeper far too many times to simply leave the pair to their own devices.

"Yeah." Yang sighed. She looked over to the side for a moment before taking a seat on the couch next to Blake. Ruby remained in place for a few moments more before going to sit in 'her' chair nearby. It wasn't like they had assigned seats or anything, but it was an unspoken assumption that since Yang and Blake were dating, they generally had first dibs on a space they could both squeeze into.

"I know it's been hard for you, believe me." Yang continued, after putting her arm around Blake's shoulders and feeling the other girl settle against her side comfortably. "With dad being gone and Uncle Qrow being, well... Himself." She grimaced, and saw Ruby wrinkle her nose at the same time.

"We should discuss going to see Dr. Mott again some time." Yang said, and held lup a hand to stop Ruby from snapping when she saw the girl tense up. "Not right now, but sometime soon. I think she was able to make some progress with us last time."

"We'll see. I didn't like her." Ruby huffed, and folded her arms defensively across her chest. The silence that came after their exchange persisted for a minute or three or five, punctuated only by Ruby taking drinks of her hot chocolate, and Blake's constant tapping away at her keys.

"Who was that on the phone before?" Came Blake's voice after a little longer, accompanied by a curious look over at her girlfriend.

"Oh, shit, that's right." Yang said with another stressed sigh. She had been lost in her thoughts, running through various possibilities and scenarios for how to get their fractured little family back to the place it once was. "It was someone from the police department." As Yang spoke, Ruby tensed up again.

Whenever she felt trapped or threatened, Ruby's fight-or-flight instinct kicked in to overdrive, and usually the girl tended to listen to the part of her brain telling her to flee. "Ruby," Blake said softly, seeing the panicky look in the younger sister's silver eyes.

"They need Ruby and her guardian, me, to go down there again." Yang continued while keeping a careful eye on Ruby. "The manager of the building Ruby tagged is down there too. The police either can't or won't press charges themselves, and the manager seems to want to talk about finding a way to work something out without getting lawyers or jail involved.

That last bit got Ruby's attention, and she cocked her head to the side curiously. "So, like, I'd still have a clean record?" She asked, and was answered by a shrug from Yang.

"No idea, they didn't explain it to me over the phone. But, we do need to go down there anyways. You're still only out on bail after all." Yang pointed out. The blonde rose from where she sat, leaving Blake to shift back into her original position.

"Want me to come along too?" Blake asked, glancing up from her work.

"No, I think we can handle it." Yang replied. She leaned back over to kiss the other girl on the top of her head before going to grab her keys again. "See you soon, Blakey. Think I'm just gonna grab us a pizza for dinner, if that's okay with you?"

"Yeah, that sounds great." Blake answered, as the sisters left.

***^v^***

It was only a short time after the officer stationed at the front desk of the precinct office hung up the phone that Winter was paged with the news that they'd arrived. "Please send them in." She instructed, speaking into the intercom on her desk. A part of her hated the thing, since it made her feel like the type of businesswoman that she'd joined the force to avoid becoming. The more rational part of Winter's brain, however, reminded her that it was a necessary tool.

There were three other chairs set up in the small room. Two directly across from her desk, empty for the moment, and one slightly off to the side against one of the walls - occupied by Weiss. Even with the chairs empty, the room felt cramped. Well, more so than it usually did, at any rate.

Both Schnee siblings turned to look at the door as two girls walked in. Weiss couldn't help but frown as she once more met the eyes of the hoodlum who'd nearly run her down. Though, it was obvious that the youth was just that. Part of her wanted to believe that the girl - Ruby, from what she'd been told - had simply made a bad decision. The other part of her, the one which had been ground in to her by years of secondhand lessons gained by watching her Father work, told Weiss that there were never any excuses for behavior like that.

"Thank you for coming in on such short notice." Winter said, steepling her fingers in front of her, while her elbows rested on her desk. "Pardon me for saying so, but you look young. Are you Miss Rose's guardian, Miss..?" The Sergeant asked, raising an eyebrow at the pair while they took their seats.

"Xiao Long." Yang replied, looking across the desk at Winter. She was slightly surprised to see how much the two other women in the room resembled each other, and a glance at the nameplate on her desk confirmed what she thought. Sergeant Schee. The manager of the building was a Schnee as well, she recalled. Oh boy.

"Xiao Long..?" Winter said, surprise clear in her voice and betrayed by the widening of her eyes. But, her discipline reigned in her emotions soon after that, and Winter appeared to be all business once again.

"I'm her guardian, yes." The blonde confirmed, nodding, and ignoring the curious reaction that the elder Schnee had. "Our father... Isn't in the picture any more." Ruby winced at that, and Yang set a calming hand on her younger sister's knee. "We stayed with our uncle for a while, but once I turned eighteen, I assumed guardianship over Ruby." Yang explained.

Winter nodded as she listened, absorbing all of the information presented to her and mentally filing it away before replying. "I see, thank you for the clarification." She said smoothly, with no trace of her earlier 'emotional outburst' evident. "Well, then, let's get down to business. The owner of the Schee office downtown which Miss Rose was spray painting - my Father - has elected to leave matters of potential charges being pressed in the hands of the building's manager - my Sister." Winter went on, and nodded at Weiss as she was mentioned.

"I am fully aware of how this looks." Winter continued, and pinched the bridge of her nose for a brief moment. "But, rest assured, that if there were any other way to have this handled then I would not be involved at all. Should you ever require some sort of proof of that, you have but to request it and the department will do what it can to make that happen." She promised

As her name implied, Winter could be icy at times, but she was committed to her job and to doing it the right way, to a degree that very few of Vale's Finest could claim. After hearing Weiss clear her throat softly, Winter nodded over at her sister.

"Yes, well." Weiss began, flicking her gaze between the dolt who had marred her building and the young woman - who seemed to be fairly close in age to herself. "As the Sergeant said, matters of charges and going to court have been left to me." If Winter's demeanor was icy, then Weiss' was closer to that of hell frozen over.

"Let me be very clear here. The only reason I haven't asked my sister to simply proceed with charging you outright is because there simply isn't time to deal with all of the minutia involved with it." Weiss stated, looking directly at Ruby, who blinked in confusion.

"...Huh?" Ruby said, cocking her head to the side. All of this was becoming harder and harder to follow for her.

Luckily, that's why she wasn't there alone. Yang had furrowed her brow as Weiss spoke, and glanced over at her sister. "She doesn't have the time." She explained, and Weiss nodded in confirmation.

"The cost of cleaning the building was quoted to me as being five-thousand Lien." Weiss continued, after the sisters had their little aside. She ignored the deer-in-headlights look in Miss Xiao Long's eyes and Miss Rose's dropped jaw at that.

It didn't surprise her that they reacted as such. Vale's thirty-seventh precinct was in one of the distinctly less wealthy areas of the city. The Schnee building had been constructed there to avoid the building cost that would be incurred by being built in one of the more prestigious areas. Though, Weiss had a sneaking suspicion that her Father's other reason for building here was so he could call on Winter to respond to any emergencies at the property directly.

"Five thousand?!" Ruby burst out. "It was just paint! Not even good paint, either!" She lamented, and sunk lower into her chair.

"Yes, well, the cost has more to do with the fact that the crew will be obstructing the entire sidewalk for at least three days time to fully remove the muck you sprayed on the side of my building." Weiss snapped back. "It was a conservative estimate as well. I would be more than happy to keep a running tally of their expenses if you think I'm being unfair."

"I'm sure that won't be necessary." Yang said quickly, seeing Ruby's mouth open again and cutting her off before she could stick her foot further into it. "Aaaaanyways. Someone said something about avoiding this being put on her record? How would that work?" She asked, glancing between the two snow haired sisters

"Simple." Weiss said with a shrug, though she was still glaring at Ruby. "She works off the cost of having my building cleaned." There was clear confusion on Yang's face, and a small - but quickly growing - amount of distress on Ruby's. "To put it plainly, I need an assistant and your dolt of a sister has a debt to pay. She'll be hired at our normal hourly rate, and have sixty percent of her wages garnished until the cost of the cleaning has been met." She made little motions with her hands as she spoke, as if that would make the explanation easier to understand. "By my math, it should take six or seven months."

As Weiss laid everything out, Yang chewed her lip. She could feel the frenetic energy being given off by her sister, and knew Ruby was itching to get out of there. Yang gave Ruby's knee another squeeze before looking over at Weiss again. "I think that's a fair way to handle it." She said, and ignored Ruby's sputtering protests, for the moment.

"Excellent. I'd hoped you would see things my way." Weiss said, and rose from her chair. She smoothed the wrinkles from her pale blue skirt, and nodded at her newest employee. "Report to the building at seven in the morning. Don't be late." She finished, and marched out to return to work for the remaining couple of hours in the work day

As Ruby opened her mouth again, Yang raised a finger and jabbed it in her direction. "Not in public, Ruby." She warned, and watched as her sister deflated like a bouncy castle that had a tear. "We can talk about it at home. Oh, uhm. If we're done here?" She finished, glancing at Winter with her final words. As the Sergeant nodded, Yang nudged Ruby up out of her chair so they could head home. There was probably another argument in store for them, but Yang felt a grim satisfaction that she'd done what she had to.

***^v^***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Phew! This chapter turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated it being. I gotta say, writing Ruby and Yang arguing was tough since instinct always tells me that she will forever be a pure little cinnamon roll. Also, as one review pointed out, there are a few similarities here to Demeter Fenrir's 'Free Runner' story. I've read their fic, and I'm a fan of it too - I'd recommend checking it out some time if you haven't. I fell in love with the idea of Ruby as a free runner, and so have shamelessly stolen it, but that's it. I'm aiming to make 'Clipped Wings' have a darker tone than their work.
> 
> Anyways, thank you all so much for reading! I hope to keep this going for a long time


	3. Servitude

"Well, I still don't like it." Ruby grumbled, staring out the window of the 'family' car. It was a misnomer, now that her dad wasn't around anymore, but it was still how Ruby thought of the old beat up sedan.

"Tough cookies." Yang replied tersely. She almost added that Ruby shouldn't have been caught, or doing anything illegal to begin with, but the blonde knew how that conversation would end. "We all have to do things we don't like sometimes." Yang continued, and glanced over at the passenger's seat.

"I know, I know." Ruby huffed. "That Schee lady seemed kinda bitchy is all, don't you think?" She was sitting in the seat with her knees pulled up to her chest, turned away from her sister, and had her forehead leaning against the window. While Yang didn't think it was the safest way to ride in a car, she counted her blessings - usually it was a struggle to even get Ruby to wear her seatbelt.

Yang shrugged at that. "Bitchy or not, she's your boss for now." Yang shot back casually. She could tell that Ruby was still mad at her, but what other choice did she have? Her job as a mechanic at a garage downtown and Blake's job as a journalist paid the bills, but they just didn't have any extra cash to pay off the cleaning bill Ruby brought home the other day. "It'll only be for a few months. After that, you can do what you want. But, they're not taking all of your paycheck. Might be nice to have your own spending money for once."

Ruby chewed on her lip at that point. Her sister was right, as she usually was - though Ruby was loath to admit that sometimes. She wasn't privy to all of the details of their living situation, since Yang and her girlfriend handled all of the bills, paying for food, and all the other little details that living somewhere entailed. But, she suspected that while they didn't seem to be in danger of being kicked out, her freeloading was a bigger strain on their finances than it needed to be.

"Besides, it doesn't sound too hard. Miss Schnee made it sound like you'll be a glorified receptionist more than anything." Yang continued. After a little more back-and-forth at the station about just what Ruby's job would entail, and a bit of e-mail conversing after that, Yang was confident enough that her little sister wouldn't be thrown to the wolves or in over her head.

Ruby was smart, Yang knew that even if her sister couldn't see it. But, more than that, buried deep beneath her self-destructive habits and poor coping mechanisms, Ruby had a good heart. It saddened Yang when she compared the girl that was currently brooding next to her with the happy-go-lucky child that she knew growing up. But, hopefully Ruby would one day get her old happiness back.

"Yeah, it sucks." Ruby countered. "There's got to be someone else who can do that kind of shit." She griped.

"Well maybe you'll think about that next time, before you cause five thousand lien worth of damages." Yang snapped. The silence after her outburst was pervasive, and the peace that it brought uneasy. Though Yang regretted letting her temper get the best of her, it irritated her to no end that Ruby just… Didn't seem to comprehend the severity of her actions.

The rest of the ride to the Schnee building was spent in solitude for each of the sisters. Ruby was clearly bristling, and Yang didn't want to try and disturb that proverbial porcupine. "I'll see you around six thirty?" Yang said after pulling up to the curb outside of the office building. "Sorry if I'm a bit late, but if I get ca-" She was cut off by the slamming of the car door as Ruby got out. "So much for trying to apologize.." Yang muttered. With a heavy sigh, the blonde leaned back in her seat for a moment, eyes closed, before worming her way back into traffic.

When Ruby walked through the front doors of the building she'd tried to pretty up two days ago, she was greeted by a blast of cool air from an overhead vent as she passed by. After readjusting the bag she had slung over her shoulder, Ruby marched forwards towards the reception desk.

"Salutations! May I help you?" The voice behind the desk asked, looking up from whatever was distracting her on her screen. The face that was attached to the voice belonged to a freckled girl with orange hair that curled up just past her chin and vibrant green eyes. A quick glance towards the placard on the desk gave Ruby the girl's name - Penny.

"I'm here to see Miss Schnee?" She said, and ignored the look of surprise in the girl's eyes. Whether it was her apparent age, or that she was dressed in faded black jeans, and a black and red hoodie, Ruby couldn't tell. But, she didn't really care.

"O-oh!" Penny replied, and quickly typed a few things into her computer. After a few accompanying mouse clicks, she looked back at the waiting Ruby. "...You must be Miss Rose, right?" She asked, and Ruby nodded. The use of 'miss' made her feel a little weird, but the girl suppressed a grimace. "I just sent her a message saying you've arrived. Miss Schnee's office in the back. You'll know it when you see it." With a smile, the orange-haired receptionist turned back to her work, and Ruby got the sense that she'd just been dismissed.

It took a minute or three for Ruby to pick her way through the layout of the office, gathering curious glances and upturned noses along the way. Soon, however, she was standing in front of a glass door that was only distinguishable from the glass wall surrounding it by the sleek hinges and protruding handle. "Now I know what… What's-her-face meant." Ruby muttered to herself. If she could have stalled a little longer, she would have, but that wasn't really possible when there were a dozen or so people who could see her - and her new boss had looked up from her work to stare right at her.

She sighed, and opened the door to step inside. "A hoodie, really?" Was the first thing that Weiss said to her. In contrast to her calm and cool demeanor the other day, Ruby could hear surprise… and disdain in Weiss' voice.

"At least this one's clean." Ruby shot back, and smiled internally when she saw the white-haired girl purse her lips.

"You have to know how inappropriate your attire is." Weiss continued, and when Ruby opened her mouth to complain, the manager raised her finger and silenced the teen with a glare. "I know you're young and, well, inexperienced would be too kind of a word to use, but surely your sister explained to you what a dress code is?"

If Weiss sounded exasperated with Ruby already, it was because she was. Winter had warned her that this might not go how she imagined it, but Weiss didn't want an incident like this to ruin Ruby's life forever. The fact that her record now officially contained vandalism was bad enough, but having her serve time in jail for it could permanently affect her. Still.. Maybe Weiss should have listened to Winter - she clearly knew more about this sort of thing than she did.

"Sorry we're not drowning in lien like you are, Princess." Ruby snapped back. Her arms folded across her chest while she stared daggers at the woman seated across from her. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to be spinning signs on the sidewalk, what does it matter what I wear?"

Weiss openly gawked at Ruby at her defiance. To say she wasn't used to those she viewed as being beneath her talking back to her was an understatement. Hell, Weiss couldn't even remember the last time anyone voiced a dissenting opinion to her. "Because most of the people working here have meetings with clients, you dolt." Weiss answered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Myself included." With a frown on her face, Weiss turned back to her screen. "Ugh, whatever. No time to fix you - just make sure you do better tomorrow." She instructed. Weiss didn't really care, at all, how much Ruby hated it there. Based on their meeting the previous day, Weiss knew that Ruby didn't really have a choice in the matter of whether she wanted to be there or not.

Without looking away from her screen, Weiss pointed to three stacks of papers on the corner of her desk. "I need all of those sorted chronologically, then sorted into the appropriate cabinets." Weiss ordered. "And for god's sake, do NOT mix the different cases up. I really cannot stress enough how much of a headache it will be if you do."

"Yeah, whatever." Ruby grumbled, and walked over to snatch up the first large pile of documents. After shrugging her bag off her shoulder and letting it thump to the floor, Ruby crossed her legs and smoothly sat down.

"We set aside a de- You know what, forget it." Weiss said, and just let the unruly assistant do as she pleased. With as much pushback as Ruby was giving her already, trying to force her to use a desk like a normal person probably wouldn't go over well, she thought. 'At least she'll be out of sight. Kind of.' Weiss thought to herself, and went back to her work.

Still, Weiss was begrudgingly impressed when she saw Ruby laying things out into neat piles before dividing them up further. Soon enough, she was methodically placing things in their proper order, and occasionally muttering to herself. As time went on, Weiss was able to tune out Ruby's noises, and her office regained a modicum of peace. The tension eased, or it seemed to, anyways.

***^v^***

"Hey, what time's lunch?" Ruby piped up, after working quietly all morning. She didn't really see a need to speak unless she was spoken to, or needed something explained. So far, she hadn't, and so Ruby stayed quiet.

"Most of us go around one or two in the afternoon." Weiss replied casually, and glanced at the clock in the corner of her computer screen. Twelve-thirty. "But, really, as long as you're not falling behind, and we know you headed out, I don't really care when you go."

As soon as Weiss finished, Ruby was on her feet and stretching. She shook the stiffness from her joints with a happy groan, sighing when she was done. "First stack's done. I'll put it in the cabinet on my way out." Ruby informed her boss, and picked the now neatly organized pile of papers on the floor.

"Hold on a sec?" Weiss asked, with an uncharacteristic lack of bite to her tone. That was what stopped Ruby next to the door, more than Weiss' words.

"Oookay.." Ruby answered, curious as to what the woman wanted. She shifted her balance from one foot to the other, shuffling about awkwardly while waiting for Weiss to finish up with.. Whatever Weiss did. Ruby didn't honestly know, all she really knew was that her boss' family's name was on the door out front.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot. No pun intended." Weiss said, picking up a small white handbag. While she curled the corners of her lips down at her poor choice of words, Weiss' red-and-black clad counterpart just smirked. 'Dolt..' Weiss thought to herself, but kept her ire in check. If Ruby was going to be working in her office, she deserved a chance to be known as something other than 'the girl who almost kicked Weiss in the face after spray painting her building.'

"Would you like to get some lunch with me?" Weiss queried, and offered a rare small smile as well. It wasn't much, but ho-

"Not on your life, Princess." Ruby snorted, interrupting Weiss, before turning on her heel and walking towards the front doors after exiting the spacious office.

It took a second for Weiss to find her voice again, but when she did, she was hot on Ruby's heels as she left. "Hey! Lunch is an hour, don't forget!" Weiss called after her newest employee. "Ugh.. Maybe Winter was right." She said to herself, watching Ruby exit the building.

***^v^***

As three hours turned into four, and then five, Weiss grew more and more irritated. And, the more irritable she got, the less she was able to focus on her work. It took a large force of will, but Weiss was finally able to buckle down and slog through some more case work.

That is, until a knock on her door pulled her away again. Weiss was ready to scream, and nearly did, until she saw Coco opening the glass door. "What?" She snapped, and Coco raised an eyebrow at the clipped outburst. "Sorry.. Sorry. Long day, not your fault." Weiss grumbled.

"Still no word from the brat, huh?" Her colleague and fellow student asked. As cool as she always was, Coco leaned against the door while they spoke.

"No, nothing yet." Weiss sighed, and waved the girl in. "And will you shut the door? I don't like gossiping - especially not when people can hear." She griped, and got an amused snort in return.

"Doubt anyone else gives a shit, Schnee." Coco said, casually, inspecting the fingernails of one hand. Still, she did as requested and fully stepped into the room, letting the door shut behind her "Everyone's been talking about her, you know."

"Is it really that bad?" Weiss whined, and folded her arms on her desk to lay her head down for a second. "I mean.. I knew this wouldn't be easy, for anyone, but… Ugh. It's time to close! And no one knows where she is!"

Normally, Weiss wasn't this exasperated, or as animated when she spoke, but the venting was strangely cathartic. "Her phone's off, so I can't call her. Getting her sister involved would just be a hassle. I mean, she could have just run off, or gotten hit by a car, or.. Or.." As Weiss went on, and really got into a groove, she became so focused on her ranting that she didn't see or hear the whisper-quiet opening of her office door. Until Ruby's quiet cough got her attention.

"YOU DOLT!" She yelled out, before a hand flew up to her mouth to cover both it and the blush on her cheek. Coco just snickered, and gave a playful little wave of her fingers. With a grin, Coco mouthed the words 'good luck' to Ruby before leaving and heading back to her desk.

Weiss watched as her fellow student chatted with a few of her coworkers, mostly the ones who had heard her shouting and were sending glances over at Weiss. With her eyebrow twitching slightly, Weiss waited for the door to swing shut again before speaking up again. "Would you care to explain just where the hell you ran off to?!" She started, glaring daggers at Ruby, who looked genuinely a little surprised at the vitriol Weiss displayed.

"I just needed to cl-" Ruby started, before Weiss raised a finger again. And, damnit, but it worked a second time as well!

"Actually? I don't care." Weiss snapped. "You have ONE more chance, Ruby Rose." She paused, letting her icy blue eyes meet her counterpart's silver ones. "One. More. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt for today. I didn't call your sister. I didn't call Wi- Sergeant Schnee. But this is the last favor I'm going to do you. Are we clear?"

"Yes ma'am." Ruby said. Though her tone was soft, her words were said through gritted teeth. If anyone else had spoken to her like that, Ruby would have blown a gasket, but hearing Yang's name reminded her about the situation she found herself in. In the most literal way, she couldn't afford to piss Weiss off, and Ruby's cheeks burned at her own foolishness.

"Good, then get out of here. Go home. Just make sure you're on time tomorrow - you're working late to cover your 'extended lunch' today." Weiss said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"What?! But that's no-" Ruby started, gawking at the white haired manager, but was cut off by another glare sent her way. "Fine. I'll be here." She promised. Before she could mess things up any more than she already had, Ruby turned and headed for the door. The angry youth could feel the eyes on her back as she left, and fought the urge to whirl around so she could tell them all to fuck off.

Instead, Ruby just walked outside so she could sit on a nearby bench. 'This sucks..' She thought to herself. 'First day and I'm already on my boss' shit-list. I wonder if Yang or Blake ever had to deal with anyone like her.'

After fishing her phone out, turning the thing back on, and ignoring the twelve (twelve?!) voicemail notifications she saw, Ruby could see that Yang was, as usual, running a little late. Oh well, she was used to it. Vale's traffic could be a bitch, especially du-

Her musings were interrupted by the sight of someone in a short white skirt sitting next to her. A few quick glances told Ruby that whoever it was at least had a decent pair of legs, but she just managed to beat back the urge to recoil when her eyes traveled further up. 'Gack! Weiss..' She thought to herself, and turned her eyes back to ebb and flow of traffic. 'C'mon, Yang.. Hurry uuuuupppppp.'

"I wanted to.. Apologize." Ruby heard from next to her, and blinked at the unexpected words. "I shouldn't have snapped like I did, and I hope we can put this behind us." After letting the silence sit for a moment, Ruby finally saw the familiar beat-up shape of Yang's car pull up - accompanied by the blond waving her over.

"Yeah, whatever." Ruby grunted, standing up from the bench and ignoring the mixed look of shock and hurt in her boss' eyes. "Thanks for not ratting me out, though." Was the only concession she gave before getting into the passengers seat.

***^v^***

"So, you going to tell us how it went?" Yang asked. The apartment door clicked shut behind the sisters. Though Yang had wanted to start 'interrogating' her baby sister as soon as she was in the car, Ruby had seemed somehow even moodier and more distracted than usual. So, Yang let things lie until they were home.

"It wasn't really anything special." Ruby grumbled as she looked down and away from the two sets of prying eyes and ears that faced her.

"Oh, come on. It can't have been that bad." Blake said, with a little twinkle in her eye. Ruby had long thought that the raven-haired girl was psychic, the way she seemed to always see through whatever front Ruby was putting up. But, she could figure out what mystical powers Blake possessed later..

"Weiss is, hmm." Ruby started. She shrugged her backpack off, leaving it near the door so she could just grab it on the way out in the morning. "Kind of a bitch, honestly. But, I guess she's also not as horrible as I expected her to be?"

"Well, at least there's that?" Yang said, and sat herself on the couch next to her girlfriend. "Could always be worse is what I always say." She continued. "There's some leftover pizza if you want to heat some up for dinner. I'm gonna go change." After giving Blake a quick kiss, Yang went off to their room.

"So, how was it really?" Blake asked again, looking at Ruby with gentle curiosity. 'Maybe she's a witch.' Ruby thought, and moved to the kitchen to find herself some food.

"I ran off during lunch." Ruby admitted, with an angry sigh. When Blake stayed quiet at that revelation, Ruby felt safe to continue. Even if Blake disapproved of something, if she knew that telling Yang would just start a fight, or if she could tell that Ruby wanted something kept private, Blake would oblige.

"I just started to feel so confined in there, and I couldn't think of a way to get out. Then, when I asked Weiss about lunch and she was so casual about it.. I just bolted." Despite Ruby's tough and oftentimes prickly exterior, she dwelled on a lot of the things she'd done. She didn't outright sound dejected, but Ruby was definitely more introspective.

"She was mad when I came back." Ruby continued, and answered the 'ding' of the microwave. "Ow! Sonofa.." She winced, and wisely let her reheated pizza cool for a few moments. "But, she didn't call Yang or the police officer we met with the other day - her sister."

When Yang re-emerged, clad in a comfy pair of black shorts and a blazing orange tank top, Ruby let the subject back. Blake took the silent hint, and smiled up at her girlfriend to help make it look like nothing of note had been talked about.

"So, looking forward to your second day, Rubles?" Yang teased, grinning at her sister. She squeezed past the groaning Ruby to grab the remaining pizza, so she could share it with Blake.

"You know I hate when you call me that." Ruby growled. With hunched shoulders, she stalked her way over to her room. There was a time when Yang and Blake tried to keep Ruby from eating in her room, but her persistence and stubbornness paid off in the end. "Actually." Ruby suddenly said, turning around and sticking her head back out from around the corner of the door frame. "Do you think you could help me with clothes shopping this weekend, Blake?"

While Blake looked surprised, Yang looked shell shocked at the request. "What about me?" Yang wailed. "I'm sure we'd have a great time!"

Blake laughed, and shook her head at the blonde's antics. "I'm sure, but I don't think Ruby is in the market for bikinis and leather jackets." She said knowingly, and Ruby answered with a nod. "Better to ask a journalist than a mechanic for that sort of thing." Blake grinned, and Yang hung her head in defeat.

"Thanks Blake!" Ruby chirped, and Blake once again raised her eyebrows in surprise. This was the first time in a long time that she'd seen Ruby look actually.. Happy. Maybe this would work out after all. "I'll pay you back when I can."

"Don't mention it." Blake replied humbly, watching as the door shut. She looked over at Yang when the girl took her seat beside the writer. "I don't know who that was just now, but I'm not sure it was the Ruby we know." Blake murmured, then took a slice of pizza - one of the last ones with anchovies on it.

"It was her alright." Yang said with a concerned furrow of her brows. "That was 'kid Ruby'. From before we had to move in with our Uncle." She explained, taking a bite of her own dinner. "I just hope it lasts."

***^v^***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Can't believe I have this many words written already.. I know there's a gap where we don't know what Ruby's up to, but I made the choice to not bog things down with another thousand words of Ruby doing nothing. This is gonna be a slow burn, yeah, but the plot's still gotta advance, ya know?
> 
> Tune in next week for more RWBY Ball Z!


	4. First Steps

"Honestly, she's doing better than I thought she would." Weiss said casually, speaking down towards her gear shift. "I expected her to be back in your hands already." She smiled as an amused snort came through over her car's speakers.

"No, not that one. She was raised better than that, I promise." Winter replied. "I have to go to the briefing - you should call more often." Her sister said suddenly, before Weiss could ask what she meant by her previous statement.

"Of course, it was lovely being able to talk to you in the morning for once." Weiss continued, and the sentiment was echoed by Winter before the phone hung up. 'Raised better? How would she know?' She wondered, pulling her car into the parking deck next to the building.

The past week had been kind of a blur for the white-haired heiress, filled mostly with work, work, and some more work on top of that just because she didn't have enough work already. Besides that, there was a fair amount of growing pains in the office - with everyone settling in to their roles and determining the intrasocietal pecking order.

Weiss didn't have to worry about that, thankfully being in charge had a few perks, though she watched how her staff acted around each other with interest. Coco and Penny were well liked by everyone, and neither had any trouble making work friends with just about everyone. Weiss, on the other hand, got the distinct impression that she was feared more than respected, and even then it was only because of her last name.

As for her assistant.. Ruby existed somehow outside of the office politics. Being slightly taller than average, and possessing an athletic figure, a lot of the staff seemed to think that she just looked young for her age. Some even flirted with her a bit, not that Ruby seemed to notice or care. But, when they found out just how young she actually was, most avoided her like the plague so they could avoid being seen as 'that guy'.

It was a shame, really, Weiss thought. If you could put up with the dolt's tough outer shell, brusque nature, and the fact that she tended to snap sometimes - Ruby really wasn't all that bad of a person in her opinion.

After Ruby had gotten into a few terse exchanges with her coworkers, Weiss had taken the liberty of moving her assistant's desk inside her office. Since Ruby spent most of her day organizing files and keeping track of various figures, it made sense to keep her close by anyways. That she was kept out of trouble was an added benefit.

Ruby's performance had slowly but steadily improved after skipping out on the latter half of her first day, and so far the only other time she wasn't perfectly on-time was when there was a line at a food truck and she'd been late back by ten minutes.

It was perhaps too early to make any sort of educated guess on how Ruby would work out, or even how the office would work out, but Weiss was cautiously optimistic for the future.

Weiss' train of thoughts was interrupted as she walked in the building. Something was.. Off. She couldn't place what it was, but something felt different about that morning. Carefully, Weiss scanned the open-concept room. Though someone or something could be lurking in the cubicles, behind their low half-dividers, there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

'A-ha!' Weiss thought, when she spotted some overhead lights on in the back of the building. Her office, specifically. 'Did I forget to turn them off last night?' She wondered, making her way to the back. The building had dim lighting that stayed on all day, just in case someone was working late, and the main lighting came on early in the morning to ensure that people could see properly by the time the office opened for business. They could be turned on and off manually, though Weiss was meticulous enough in her routine that it perplexed her to see her space well-lit before she got there.

With pursed lips and a furrowed brow, Weiss reached up to scratch her head. Chair pushed in, desk neatly in order, Ruby's chair not quite where she left it.. Wait. Ruby's cha-

"Oh, morning Weiss." Came a voice from behind her. Weiss prided herself on not being easily scared, but the white haired girl just about jumped out of her shoes then. Whirling around so fast that her skirt whirled with her in an almost comical fashion, Weiss glared at the girl before her.

Ruby's expression was confused, and after not getting an immediate reply from her boss, stepped around her so she could return to her desk. "What. Are you. Doing here. Dolt." Weiss asked through gritted teeth. Her hands were balled into fists, and as she turned to look at Ruby.

"Uhhh, you hired me? After I vandalized your building?" Ruby answered, with a concerned look on her face now. "Are you feeling okay?" She asked, and took a seat back at her desk, where Weiss guessed she must have been working on something.

"No shit, Ruby." Weiss hissed, and pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "I mean what are you doing here now. No one else is ever here this early in the day."

Though Ruby wanted to snap back at Weiss, she held her tongue. Starting a fight wouldn't be smart, and in the back of her mind, she knew that Weiss had a point. "Couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk waaaay early this morning." Ruby explained, and shuffled a few things on her desk. "Decided that I might as well get a head start on things, so I packed my stuff up, walked over, and waited."

"After about.. An hour, I think? The maintenance guy got here." Ruby wrinkled her nose, and Weiss sympathised. Judging by her employee's expression, she knew where this was going. "What's his name.. Bryson? I think that's it. He's really skeevy." Ruby hesitated, then. "He didn't like, do anything to me. But he was just really weird, you know?"

Weiss nodded, all of the girls who worked there knew. Nobody liked the guy, but so far he'd been smart enough to not touch anyone or say anything that would be grounds for firing him. Weiss supposed she could have pulled a string or three to get him gone anyways, but the young Schnee didn't want to make waves.

"Anyways." Ruby continued. "It didn't take much to convince him to let me in too while he worked. He did his thing, I waited back here, then when he left I locked and barred the bathroom door while I changed." She shuddered at the thought of him. No more early mornings for that assistant, that was for sure. "I thought about telling him I was still seventeen, but I figured that would have just egged him on."

The news didn't surprise Weiss, unfortunately, but it did make her stomach turn unpleasantly. "You have my number. Call me next time he does something like that." Weiss instructed her. Not as a friend, though she did worry for Ruby's safety, but because she couldn't tolerate that sort of behavior happening at her family's company.

"Nah, don't worry about it." Ruby said with a shrug. "Not the first time I've had weird old guys hit on me. I'll just stop showing up so early." As Weiss watched Ruby turn more fully to her work, her heart fell a bit. She didn't blame the girl for her choice, but Bryson had driven plenty more like her away from putting in the extra effort. More than that, though, this was proof that Ruby wanted to go beyond just what she had to do.

"You look.. Nice, by the way." Weiss said, more to change the subject than anything, though the compliment was genuine. The slight tinge of pink that graced Ruby's cheeks for the briefest second told Weiss that it wasn't expected either. "Your sister took you shopping, I'm guessing?" Weiss assumed, before taking a seat at her own desk.

"Her girlfriend, Blake, did." Ruby corrected casually. She was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a deep red button down shirt - one that was just a shade darker than the streaks in her hair. Blake had surprised Ruby by directing the girl right to the mens department, which, it turned out, was the right move. Ruby hated the 'businesswoman' look. It turned out that, after trying a few things on, she didn't much mind - and actually kind of liked - the way the opposite gender's dressier clothes looked on her frame.

Over the past week, the pair's relationship had improved to the point that they weren't snapping at each other in every conversation. In fact, the day before, there was only a little bit of mild irritation for a brief moment - but no actual arguments. It perhaps wasn't much, but both Ruby and Weiss would take whatever fragile peace they could get.

"Girlfriend? Oh, I wasn't aware she was, ah.." Weiss paused, unsure of how to address the blonde's sexuality.

Ruby just shrugged, though. "Gay? Yang's not, she 'plays the field along with the whole stadium,' in her words. She's about as straight as a roller coaster." She deadpanned casually, which actually got a snicker out of Weiss. "Yang 'n Blake have been together about a year now, they had an anniversary like a month and a half ago." Ruby went on, as she reorganized the organized chaos on her desk so that it was - for the moment - more to her liking. "Oh, I got everything organized for Stevenson. They're in your 'IN' pile." She finished up.

"Oh, thanks." Weiss said with an appreciative nod. Words of even mild praise were rare from the white-haired girl, and so even that made Ruby feel a modicum of pride in her work. She'd always made fun of Yang, and to a lesser extent, Blake, about enjoying their work, but Ruby was just beginning to understand what they meant. Maybe. It was still too early to tell.

***^v^***

The sight of Ruby stretching caught Weiss' attention, more because she'd been so focused on her work that the movement drew her focus away. Which reminded her, they'd been working in relative silence for a while, and the clock told her that the day was (somewhat remarkably) already half over with.

"Lunch?" Weiss asked casually, glancing over at her assistant. She hadn't offered since Ruby's first day on the job, which had gone over so miraculously well that Weiss hadn't wanted to try again. But, after a week, and with them having a good morning - at least by their standards - Weiss figured she should take the opportunity to give it another go and try to get to know her employee better.

"Shit, I knew I was forgetting something.." Came the voice of her assistant, and Weiss winced slightly as she heard the unmistakable 'thump' of a forehead hitting a desk, followed shortly by a stack of papers hitting the floor. "Oh, damnit." Ruby huffed, and began to clean anything up. "But, ah, I'm a little short until payday." Came Ruby's admission. While she was used to not having a lot (or any, really) spending money, having to admit it was embarrassing for her.

"Don't worry about it." Weiss assured her employee, and hoped she didn't speak so quickly that she seemed needy or desperate. "It was my idea - so it's my treat." She went on, nodding to herself.

"Well, I'm not going to look a gift-millionaire in the mouth." Ruby chuckled, and Weiss rolled her eyes as they both got up.

"I told you before, I'm no-" Weiss started, before Ruby waved her hand dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah, 'My family's rich, not meeeee.'" Ruby said, and leaned against the door while waiting for Weiss to catch up. "Doesn't change the fact that if you bat your eyes your dad would throw credit cards at you until you left." With a shrug, Ruby then led her boss out of the building. She spared a small wave for Penny, who Ruby had found was actually a really nice girl - if a little quirky.

"Anyway." Weiss redirected, giving Ruby a little glare. To her credit, the girl raised her hands in a silent apology - and only rolled her eyes once. "What kind of food do you like?" Even though she'd only known Ruby for a little over a week, Weiss felt that she should have figured out some more about her personality, likes, and dislikes.

"Junk food, pretty much." Ruby replied as she stood beside Weiss on the sidewalk outside of the building. Around the corner, she could just make out the sight of a panel van. Judging by the sound of power equipment, accompanied by water hitting brick, Ruby guessed it was the cleaning crew that had been called out here due to her actions the week earlier. "Burgers, hot dogs, pizza.." Ruby listed off, and absentmindedly trailed behind Weiss as the other girl turn and started to make her way down the sidewalk.

"Absolutely not." Weiss said sternly, and Ruby huffed in disappointment. "Just.. Nevermind, I know a good place you might like."

"Well then why'd you even ask?!" Ruby sighed, exasperated. "Fine, whatever. You're paying anyways." She grumbled.

***^v^***

Ruby eyes the sandwich in front of her suspiciously, not wanting to admit that it actually looked pretty good. "It's not poisonous." Weiss scoffed, between bites of her salad. 'Of course she got a salad..' Ruby thought. 'Looks like she hasn't eaten a full meal in years. Wait.. Why do I care?' She blinked then, realizing that Weiss was looking at her expectantly. "Hello? Earth to Ruby."" Weiss asked.

"Oh! Uhh, sorry." Ruby looked down and away for a second, before taking a bite of her food so she would avoid sticking her proverbial foot in her mouth again. The grilled chicken sandwich she'd ordered was actually pretty good, and the wordless pleased noise she made spoke to that. "Y'ur righgt. S' goohd." Ruby said, then swallowed.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Weiss chastised, looking at her assistant with disapproval. "Honestly, who raised you?" The look she got in response to that told her that it was the wrong comment to make, as the expression on Ruby's face was just one step shy of outright malice.

"Yang did." Ruby growled. "Hope that's not a problem, Princess." She practically spat. Even though she'd only taken a bite or three of the sandwich, and had a handful of the accompanying chips, Ruby was no longer even remotely hungry. Her chair teetered on the edge of toppling as Ruby stood, and the ends of its legs clacked down onto the stone patio with enough noise to draw the attention of the surrounding tables for a few brief seconds.

"Ruby wa- Seriously?" Weiss started, before Ruby stormed off. 'Damnit, not again.' She thought. Even though Weiss was always a generous tipper when she went out to eat, seldom did she just throw an excess amount of money on the table so she could leave. With Ruby getting further up the block, though, she had little choice other than to run out on the cheque - and she knew how that would look.

"Hey! Wait a second, will you?" Weiss called out, and grabbed Ruby's shoulder to stop the girl from bolting. She could feel the muscles in Ruby's shoulder tense before she turned, and Weiss was afraid for a second that Ruby might actually take a swing at her. "What did I say?" She asked the seething Ruby.

"Nothing." Ruby snapped. Her stance was still hostile, but she didn't run, and she didn't start a fight. Not a physical one, anyways. Weiss still didn't think she was out of the woods as far as a verbal confrontation went. "My parents aren't in the picture, so Yang raised me as best she could." Ruby continued, slowly unwinding as her anger dissipated.

"This looks like it's really bothering you." Weiss answered, and glanced at the watch wrapped around her other wrist. Finally realizing that her hand was still resting on Ruby's shoulder, Weiss dropped it. "How about we go for a walk? There's still about half an hour before we need to go back." She offered.

Weiss wasn't just curious about Ruby's admittedly somewhat mysterious background, and why she seemed so angry for a good portion of her day, but she also wanted the girl to calm down before going back - if only to minimize her flight risk. Plus, when they met, Ruby was vaulting over a fence. Surely the girl must like walks as well. Right? It made sense to her, anyways.

"I- sure. Fine, whatever you want." Ruby grunted, then abruptly turned away. Still, she didn't just leave, and glanced to make sure that Weiss was following and keeping up. Even though Weiss had been walking in heels practically since she'd learned to walk at all, Ruby's brisk pace proved a challenge for her to keep up with.

"So, what's next on your list?" Ruby huffed, and turned into a small park. The area took up about a square city block, and had a short path inside that ran along the edge of its boundary. It was a refreshing pop of forest colors in the otherwise drab city. Usually on her breaks, Ruby came here to eat since it wasn't too far of a walk from the office.

"What? What list?" Weiss queried. Thankfully, once they passed under the vine and moss covered archway, Ruby slowed down, allowing her to keep pace more easily.

"I can hear it in your voice whenever you talk to me." Ruby said, and fixed her with a gaze that Weiss was sure could dig into her soul. "You've asked about Yang, Blake, my family.. It's like a 'Get to Know Ruby Better' checklist, and you're just ticking off boxes." She said, and Weiss couldn't really deny that she was right.

"Is that such a bad thing?" Weiss asked, and shrugged as they slowly walked the circuit. "I don't really think there's anything wrong with trying to get to know the person I'm spending nine hours a day with, sometimes more." She pointed out, and with an accepting tilt of her head, Ruby admitted Weiss had a point.

"That's fair enough, I guess." Ruby conceded, and stayed quiet as they passed by the entrance to the little park. "So? Ask away, might as well get it out in the open and over with." She shrugged. Ruby was still slightly upset at Weiss' question about who raised her before, but she was calmer. Calm enough that she didn't think this would go too poorly. Hopefully.

"I've seen your school records. I had to look at them since you're still a minor." Weiss said. Ruby sighed, knowing what she was about to ask. "The records stop at the end of last semester. They mention an.. Expulsion. But they don't give a reason, and I don't have any real grounds to ask them why."

Ruby was silent, for long enough that Weiss thought she wasn't going to answer. Just before Weiss was going to give up and change the subject, though, she spoke.

"Fighting." Ruby said simply. "Three seniors were picking on this freshman kid, looked like he was new to the city. Like he was fresh off of a farm out in the countryside.. Dunno why." Her voice was sad, and Ruby was looking off in the distance as she spoke. She paused their walk near a small bench just off the 'trail' and took a seat, and Weiss joined her a few seconds later.

"But, they damn near had him in tears by the time I went over, then they tried to argue with me." Ruby wasn't angry as she talked about what happened, as if this was just another day in her life. "Normally I wouldn't have given a shit, but one of them made some.. Less than savory comments about Yang." Bringing that tidbit up got a reaction from her, Weiss noticed, as Ruby frowned angrily.

"Even if two of the kids didn't end up needing stitches or a cast, that was my fourth 'incident' on record that year - and I had plenty before that." Ruby looked up at the sky, squinting against the glare of the sun. "They didn't have a choice, and I didn't give a shit. Since we couldn't afford private school, and I outright told Yang I'd do the same thing again in a heartbeat, she didn't push me to go somewhere else."

It was Weiss' turn to stay silent then, and it took awhile for her to even start to digest what Ruby had told her. "Well.. I can't say I understand why you jumped into a situation like that, but I think it was noble of you to do so." Weiss said slowly, trying to articulate her thoughts and not stumble over her words.

"You're lucky to have a sister like Yang." Weiss continued, looking down at her watch. She stood up to dust off her skirt before waiting for Ruby to follow suit. Though she didn't say anything, Ruby surmised that it was time to head back. "Winter is great, and my younger brother.. Well, he could be worse, but I don't see them often any more."

Ruby sensed that there was more to unpack there, but the fact that Weiss left it at that, simply turning and starting to slowly make her way towards the sidewalk, told her that it would have to wait. "Oh, hey!" She said suddenly, hustling to catch up to her boss. "I, uhm. I need to leave early on Thursday, if that's okay? I have a.. Doctor's appointment."

"An appointment?" Weiss questioned. She caught the little bit of hesitation when Ruby asked about it, but chalked it up to it being a situation that Ruby would rather not talk about. "If you can give me some more warning in the future, I would greatly appreciate it. But, yes, that's fine. I'll make arrangements." Weiss said, getting a nod of thanks from her companion.

The pair walked along in silence for a little bit. It wasn't uneasy this time, and Weiss got the feeling that maybe this was the start of a new beginning between Ruby and herself. "Hey - I have a question." Ruby spoke up, and Weiss glanced over to see a pair of furrowed brows.

"Yes?" Weiss answered simply. It was all the permission she felt she really needed to give - especially since she had an inkling that even if she said nothing, Ruby still would have asked her question.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school too?" Ruby asked. Her head was cocked to the side curiously, while her mind was running through different scenarios in which Weiss would be allowed to run a law office while still being a student.

"Oh, I am." Weiss said, with a little laugh. "My classes are all online. It's.. Unconventional, but, Father can be very 'persuasive' when he sets his mind to something." She clarified, as the pair rounded the final corner on their walk. The office was now just a couple of blocks away, and the racket from the cleaning crews was still going strong.

"He made a few sizable 'donations' to the school, in exchange for me being able to attend mostly remotely. It's likely that some of the more advanced courses will require me to attend in person, no matter how much he tries to bribe them, but I'm a sophomore so that won't be for a while." Weiss could see Ruby roll her eyes at the explanation, but Weiss paid it no mind. This was why she didn't offer such information unless asked. She was a law student, after all. Weiss knew how it looked, that her father was trying some very shady and underhanded tactics to put her ahead.

"Must be nice." Ruby grumbled, and pushed the door to their building open. Weiss just sighed as she followed. Seemed the two of them were right back on track.

***^v^***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Another week, another four thousand words, and another chapter! And another issue of our lovable idiots being, well.. Lovable idiots. Where does Ruby need to go? Why is Weiss trying to be so friendly? Who knows? Certainly not I. It's not like I'm not letting this story just go where it wills.
> 
> As a note though, for anyone who may be worried that Weiss and Ruby will become a 'thing' too soon, based on the hints I've dropped. Weiss is just making an effort to be friendly, and Ruby simply thought Weiss looked physically attractive based off of a single glance - before she knew it was Weiss she was looking at.
> 
> Also! I have tumblr (incarnadine92) and twitter ( 92inky) set up now! I'll be posting little tidbits and teasers to both, but the platforms will mostly be to interact with all of you lovely people. Throw your questions and comments at me, and I'll do my best to answer everyone ASAP!
> 
> Well, that should do it for this week. See you next Friday!


	5. Veritas

-Veritas-

To say that the tension in the air was thick would be an understatement. Blake and Yang only looked mildly uncomfortable, but Ruby hadn’t stopped fidgeting for the past ten minutes. The trio were seated in a set of comfy chairs in Doctor Mott’s downtown practice.

After some ‘gentle persuasion’ on the part of Yang, Ruby had eventually caved earlier in the week and agreed to come back for another visit. Begrudgingly, the teen had to admit to herself that maybe seeing someone for her issues was a good idea, but she’d never give that idea a voice.

“Sorry, ladies! Thanks for waiting.” Came the voice of Ruby’s therapist, who entered the room with a bright bubbly energy. It may have been a front, or a projection so that her clients would be at ease, or maybe the good Doctor was generally a happy person. It didn’t matter much to Ruby, who just wanted this to be over with.

“So! We have Ruby, and Yang.” The Doctor said, pointing to each sibling in turn, and then her finger shifted over to the one member of her group she wasn’t familiar with. “But, I don’t believe we’ve met before.”

“No, I wasn’t with them last time.” Blake confirmed, half rising from her seat to shake the hand that was extended to her. “I’m Yang’s girlfriend, Blake.” She smiled politely.

“A pleasure to meet you, both Yang and Ruby mentioned you in our previous session.” The therapist continued on, settling back into her chair comfortably. “Unfortunately, I am going to have to ask you to leave.” She said with an apologetic smile. “It’s a policy that only a client’s family, or legal guardian, may also sit in.”

“No, I understand.” Blake said, with a nod. She’d been expecting something like this to happen, but had hoped against hope that Doctor Mott would allow her to stay. She and Yang were… Close would be an understatement. Though they were both still very young, in the grand scheme of things, Blake could see herself with the blond for the rest of her life. Still, without the glimmer of silver or gold on her left hand, some things would be closed off to them.

“Call me when you’re all done?” Blake asked, and shared a soft, quick kiss with her partner before making for the door.

“Yeah. Shouldn’t be more than an hour? Maybe a little longer.” Yang shrugged, before turning her attention back to Ruby and the woman sitting across from them.

Doctor Mott was clearly more at ease with the tension in the room than her three guests were, but by that point in her career, she was pretty well used to being around people who didn’t want to be in her presence.

“So, when we last spoke, we were talking about what makes you.. You.” Doctor Mott said, glancing briefly at her notes before settling her eyes on Ruby. Squaring her shoulders and rolling her eyes, Ruby didn’t verbally reply, but nodded. “You - both of you - described a relatively normal childhood.”

“You did well in school, were pretty adventurous, a social butterfly..” The Doctor listed. “Before we ran out of time, you were talking about your father.” While Yang simply tense her shoulders slightly, Ruby outright bristled. “I know that he.. Isn’t around any more, but we didn’t get a chance to talk about the particulars.”

Though Doctor Mott had a suspicion that the information was readily available, if she chose to look for it, she didn’t want to bias herself. This was Ruby’s story to tell, with a little chiming in from her step-sister as was warranted.

“Well..” Ruby squirmed in her chair a little. “He didn’t leave or anything. He, ah.. Uhm, well..” She chewed her lip in thought, and eventually flicked her gaze over to Yang for help. Despite her often brusque attitude, Ruby still (begrudgingly) needed to rely on Yang as her big sister.

“He passed away.” Yang said softly and sadly. “It’s coming up on six years now - November First.” Doctor Mott was quiet, just listening for the moment and jotting down notes in shorthand on a pad of paper that sat in her lap.

Both sisters stayed quiet for a few moments then, thinking back to their childhood with their now deceased father. “He was a police officer.” Yang continued, staring at a spot in the center of the floor. “There was a robbery in progress at a store downtown. He and his partner responded, and well.. Well, he didn’t come home that evening.”

Though part of the Doctor yearned to reach out and give each of the girls a hug, her professionalism prevented it. Her job wasn’t to comfort and console the sisters, it was to help Ruby work through her issues and develop better life skills.

“It was the day after my twelfth birthday.” Ruby spoke up quietly, and wiped her sniffling nose with the edge of her sleeve. “I remember he was going to take us out for a nice dinner, but, well-”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to go into it if you don’t think you’re ready.” The therapist said gently, watching Ruby closely, and the girl gave a shallow nod. Based on how fast Ruby stopped divulging information, Doctor Mott suspected that Taiyang Xiao Long’s death was a bandaid that she wasn’t really ready to rip off yet.

***^v^***

A buzzing against her leg, coming from within her pocket, drew Blake’s attention from the book she was perusing. She couldn’t really call what she was doing ‘reading’, since all that was really happening was that she’d scan the pages briefly without really taking anything in.

Blake was no fool. She knew that books were her biggest vice, and if she got sucked into one now, then she would more than likely miss Yang calling or texting her when she and Ruby finished up.

So, it was both a blessing and a curse that there was a cute little independently owned bookstore (with an attached cafe!) just a couple of blocks up the road, nestled into the back corner of the stripmall next to the office complex that housed Doctor Mott’s offices.

“Hey, you.” Blake said casually, with a little smile, after checking her caller ID to ensure that she wouldn’t be answering a total stranger that casually. “You two all done? How did it go?”

The answer she got came, at first, in the form of a frustrated sigh. Blake prepared herself for the worst, but the news she got next was surprising. “It was… Well, a lot. You’re at that little bookstore, right? We’ll see you in a minute.”

Blake blinked in surprise, and actually pulled her phone away from her ear to stare at the device in disbelief. “What? How did yo-”

“We’ve been together two years, Blake.” Yang said with a laugh. “I know where to check first to find you.” After that teasing remark, the call ended, and Blake humphed in resignation.

“You’re lucky I like you so much.” Blake growled down at her phone, knowing full well that Yang couldn’t hear her griping. With her phone set on the table, in case she got another call or message, Blake went back to her idle browsing. 

Now that everything had been wrapped up, and Yang oh-so-easily figured out where to find her, Blake allowed herself the luxury of getting a little more invested in the little novel she’d plucked from the shelf.

Like most of what she read these days, it was yet another cheesy romance novel with almost laughably cliche ‘adult’ segments inelegantly woven in. The minutes ticked by slowly, but still far too quickly to make any real progress with the novel in front of her, and before Blake knew it, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

“Hey bookworm.” Yang greeted her girlfriend with a grin, which prompted both Blake and Ruby to roll their eyes. “You know we don’t have space on our shelf for any more books. Plus, there’s no way I’m letting you put that in Ruby’s room.”

“This one’s not that bad!” Blake protested immediately, and blushed as she realized that her first concern had been for the lack of space to store more books rather than Ruby’s innocence. “Well, it’s better than the last one anyways.” She finished.

The notion that the book was in some way ‘inappropriate’ had piqued Ruby’s interest, though. While trying to look inconspicuous, Ruby tried to peer around Blake’s hand to sneak a peek at what was on the pages.

“Don’t even think about it, Squirt.” Yang said dryly, reaching around her sister’s shoulders with one arm and placing her hand over Ruby’s eyes. With an eep and a huff, Ruby gave up her quest for forbidden knowledge.

“Anyways.” Blake said with a laugh, after rising to place her book back on the shelf. She knew Yang was right. There was, unfortunately, no space for the book. The simple act of returning the book to its place on the shelf gave Ruby some insight to the contents of its pages, though, and she made a soft ‘ohhhhhhh’ of understanding when she pieced it together.

While Ruby maintained that she was not a kid anymore, she’d long since given up trying to convince Yang of that. Every time that conversation was had, the blonde simply dug in her heels and insisted that Ruby would always be her baby sister. Even though it was aggravating, Ruby let Yang have her way. In all honesty, the notion was endearing to her, though she’d never admit it.

“How did it all go?” Blake continued, watching Ruby with an amused raise of her eyebrow. “The Doctor seemed pretty nice.” She commented casually.

“Yeah, she’s nice enough.” Ruby replied, with an accompanying nod from Yang. “We.. Talked about Dad some.” She said softly, and Blake’s gaze softened sympathetically. She’d never met the now-deceased police sergeant, but from the way Ruby and Yang still held him on a pedestal, Blake assumed he was a good man and a great father to them.

“That must have been difficult.” Blake answered gently. She’d figured out some time ago that just apologizing for things that happened in the past, that weren’t her fault, and that she couldn’t have done anything about anyways were a quick ticket to sparking both Ruby and Yang’s temper - at least where Taiyang Xiao Long was concerned. “Did it help?”

“Some, maybe?” Ruby continued with a shrug. “It’s hard to tell. I mean, I can’t see it helping - but she’s the one with all the fancy degrees.” Blake and Yang nodded, letting their young tenant vent about it. “Plus, she gave Yang and I - mostly me, actually - some exercises to help us talk better, too.” She paused, then looked over at Yang. “Can we go home now?”

***^v^***

The remainder of the afternoon went smoothly for the trio, which was a surprisingly nice change for all of them. Ruby remained a little high strung, but that wasn’t uncommon. What was new, however, was that she seemed slightly more receptive to voicing her thoughts and feelings as opposed to just resorting to angrily yelling.

Privately, Blake and Yang were waiting for the other foot to drop. Blake had only even known Ruby to have an angry temperament, and according to Yang she’d been this way since her father’s passing. However, like they always were, Blake and Yang were willing to give Ruby all the chances she needed.

After a small but filling dinner, Blake and Yang were relaxing on the couch, while Ruby was spending some time in her room. Normally, the door was shut and locked, but in what was perhaps the first sign of progress in months, her door was left open. Music could still be heard coming softly from beyond the door frame, a testament to how loud Ruby blared music through her headphones, but Yang and Blake weren’t being physically discouraged from seeing her.

Ever alert, Blake glanced up as she sensed the music stop, and heard the shuffling of feet from inside Ruby’s room. By the time the girl emerged, clad in her trademark hoodie with her hands stuffed in her pockets, Blake was watching passively. Ruby thought it was kind of weird just how.. In tune Blake was to things, but it was also oddly comforting as well.

“I think I’m gonna head out for a while.” Ruby said, fidgeting slightly from side to side. Even a week ago, she simply would have left, but her meeting with Yang and Dr. Mott seemed to have spurred a desire for change within her. Part of her realized that she would have to put forth the effort to not be such a brash, bratty child. She would have to initiate the process of becoming a better person and not holding on to so much anger.

“Out? Ruby, it’s almost ten..” Yang started, furrowing her brow. She wanted to protest, to try and act like the adult in the household, but part of the earlier meeting had revolved around her not being so overbearing as well. Plus, Blake’s hand settling on her knee helped the blonde to keep control. “You have your phone on you?” Yang asked with a sigh.

Ruby nodded, and fished the device out of her pocket. It was an older flip-phone, beat up and scratched to all hell, but that was the point. With all of Ruby’s semi-death defying escapades, giving her something that was pricier or easier to break was just asking for trouble.

“Okay.” Yang finished softly. “You call me if you need anything, alright?”

“I will. Promise.” Ruby said, and Yang noted that for once it didn’t sound like her little sister was just saying what she knew Yang wanted to hear. Hoping against hope, Yang actually believed her.

“Stay safe.” Blake added, and got a nod from Ruby as she headed for the door. After the door shut behind her, Blake and Yang shared a look, and Blake smiled over at her partner. “You did the right thing.” She reassured, and reopened her book.

***^v^***

The soft ringing of her phone almost went unheard in the cacophony of the garage, but Yang knew the sound well enough to pick it up even with all the noise. She pursed her lips as she saw the caller ID on the screen, and waved over to the other mechanic she was on duty with.

“I gotta take this!” She shouted, over the sound of machines and tools meshing almost violently with the vehicles in the six-bay garage. Yang got a nod in response, and she quickly jogged outside, where the noise wasn’t as harsh.

“Hello?” Yang asked, and plugged her other ear with her finger.

“Miss Xiao Long? It’s Wei-” Came the voice on the other end of the line, with some irritation in it.

“I know who it is, Weiss. And I told you, just call me Yang.” Yang cut off the other speaker. “I don’t have long to talk, what do you need?”

“Fine then, Yang. Have you seen your sister? She didn’t show up today, and I didn’t want to just call Winter.” Weiss asked, and Yang felt her heart drop into her stomach, even as her stomach leapt into her throat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Man, time is really flying with this thing, isn't it? Hard to believe it's already been over a month since I started this. I've gotten some feedback and concerns regarding how Ruby seems to jump from one emotional extreme to another pretty fast, and that's intentional. Tai's death really messed her up and stunted her social skills - even regressed them. But! With the magic of therapy, practice, and Yang not letting her give up on herself, our little cinnamon roll should be juuuuuuuuuust fine. Eventually. Assuming she doesn't stay missing forever. WILL SHE?!
> 
> Also, on a more personal note, there will not be an upload next Friday. As much as I love writing this story, it's starting to become a chore and I do not want to burn out. I'm going to take the next week to just write more slowly, build up a good back-stock of posts, and just take it easy to prevent this happening again in the future. So, I'll see you all on the 31st!


	6. Strychnos

-Strychnos-

She had every intention of going back. Honestly, Ruby did. But, after all of the talking that had been done with the doctor, with her sister, and with Blake a little later, she just needed a little space to let her mind float aimlessly.

Walking, exploring, and simply existing in the city had always been the best way for Ruby to unwind and de-stress. With the advice given to her by Doctor Mott helping her express her feelings and desires, Ruby thought she did a pretty decent job of communicating her need to stay out for a while.

Ruby could see that Yang outright didn’t like the idea, and Blake was definitely concerned, but just talking about it actually helped. Who’d a thunk it? None of the three girls were fools. They all knew that the steps they had taken were the first baby steps on a long journey. The proverbial tip of the iceberg. Doctor Mott had reassured them, repeatedly, that progress was progress, however small - and the sisters took that to heart.

As Ruby thought about it more, it was more than likely the fact that she didn’t just yell and run that kept the situation from delving into melt-down territory. The teen wasn’t yet one-hundred-percent convinced that simply talking through things would result in her life being all sunshine and rainbows - but Ruby was a little more willing to give it a fair chance now.

There was something about Vale at night that had always captivated Ruby more than it did during the daylight hours. There was an air of mystery to the streets that excited her. Alleys, streets, and little parks that were well-lit and well-traveled turned into hidden crevices, foreboding tunnels, and the ruins of abandoned civilizations.

As a general rule, Ruby tended to eschew most modern forms of entertainment. Not because she had some holier-than-thou disdain for any of it, but because her imagination carried her further, faster, than any other medium did.

Books weren’t bad, if Ruby absolutely had to be in a situation where she was cooped up, however she’d never really had an interest in TV shows or video games like Yang did. From a few of their short conversations, Ruby knew that Weiss shared similar sentiments. Knowing that they actually shared an opinion was a little surprising, honestly, but as Ruby and Weiss spent more time together, it seemed like the pair weren’t such polar opposites as she had first assumed they were.

As the last rays of sunlight began to dip below the spire-like rooftops that populated the downtown area, Ruby decided - as she most always did - to just let her feet take her where they wanted to go. Oftentimes she ended up lost, but trying to find her way back to the streets and areas she was more familiar with was part of the fun for her.

Sometimes she had to ask for directions, but Ruby prided herself on only having to look up where she was on a map twice. Pretty impressive, she thought, considering how absentminded she could be.

With the street lights beginning to flicker on, a skip entered Ruby’s gait as she ventured off into the night.

***^v^***

Ruby was going to regret not sleeping, she just knew it. Sure, she felt fine at the moment - refreshed, even - but as soon as she sat down and had to focus, Ruby would crash. Before she’d had her little run in with Weiss and been forced to get a job, she wouldn’t have minded. She’d have gone home, grumbled at Blake and Yang, and slept the day away.

Alas, that wasn’t an option anymore. ‘Shoulda done this tomorrow, when I didn’t have to work..’ Ruby griped to herself. ‘Maybe next we-’ Her train of thought was interrupted by a hard impact against her left shoulder. ‘The hell?’ Ruby thought, and nearly spun around from the hit.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” A boy, close to Ruby in age, by the looks of it, snarled at her. “You made me spill my damn drink!” With his burnt-orange hair combed back and the stereotypical ‘douchebag’ persona being displayed in full, the kid looked like a stereotypical meathead that you’d find in high school. Wait.. Had she gone to school with him?

“What, you can’t move yourself?” Ruby shot back, stepping closer to her aggressor. She was smaller than him. A lot smaller, she could see that plainly now that she was in his face. And.. He had a couple buddies with him. Uh-oh. “If you’re really stupid enough that you didn’t see me, you deserved it!”

Yeah.. Ruby recognized him then, and she could see the recognition flickering in his eyes as well. He was one of the boys who’d been picking on that freshman kid on the day she got expelled, and as Ruby’s eyes flicked over to one of his buddies - oh, shit, they were edging around to encircle her - she thought she recognized him as the other kid.

“You talk a lot of shit, for someone in their position. Isn’t it past your bedtime?” The boy taunted, smirking at Ruby, which just infuriated her.

“Bedtime’s for kids, so why don’t you go crawl back to your mommy?” Ruby spat at him, which proved to be a step too far. He lunged at her, and when Ruby sprang back, she bumped into the chest of one of his buddies.

“Bad move, girly.” Came a laughing voice from behind her, before two hands grabbed her shoulders firmly. Ruby tried desperately to get free, but wasn’t strong enough to outright muscle her way out of his grasp before she felt the all too familiar sensation of a balled fist thundering into her unprotected abdomen.

The wind was driven from her lungs, and Ruby struggled to suck down a fresh breath of air, only to have it stolen from her by a second impact. She doubled over as much as she could, though was still being held up by whoever was behind her. Now truly desperate, Ruby finally was able to wriggle just enough to thrust her elbow back. She felt herself hit something soft, and the seemingly unnecessarily loud yelp of pain clued her in to just where she’d caught her attacker.

As the hands left her shoulders, finally, Ruby stumbled forwards. She almost lost her balance, but recovered just in time, and scampered down a nearby alley like a wounded animal. “Quit being a baby, she didn’t hit you that hard.” The leader barked, and led his crew after Ruby. Her eyes scanned the barely lit area around her, searching for a way out of this mess.

With the early morning light just beginning to show itself, Ruby could see better than during the night, but not by much. But, the minimal illumination was just barely present enough to glint over the rusted railing of a fire escape. After building up what momentum she could get, Ruby was - just barely - able to throw herself over the railing.

“Shit, come on!” Ruby heard behind her. She had hoped that her pursuers would have given up after she’d oh-so-gracefully vaulted on to the firescape, but it seemed that she would have no such luck. ‘C’mon, Ruby.. Get up.’ She urged herself, scrambling back to her feet. It felt like she’d taken a sledgehammer to the gut, twice. All Ruby wanted to do was sit down and rest, but she very much wanted to not have the trio of bullies catch up to her.

They had been bad enough in school, and Ruby wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d been expelled too, but they seemed much more aggressive out here in the open. Plus, Ruby holding her own against them when they’d picked on the kid from school was probably pretty embarrassing. She needed to move. Now. With her lungs still burning, Ruby forced herself to keep going. Keep moving forwards.

As she kept climbing, Ruby’s muscles started to ache. Normally, climbing a fire escape like this wouldn’t have troubled her in the slightest, especially since it was only two stories, but there were more than a couple external factors affecting her performance today - not the least of which was the sound of footsteps just a couple of heartbeats behind her.

By the time Ruby had burst on to the rooftop, she was gasping, panting, and sweating. ‘Just my luck..’ She thought to herself, grimacing, as a light drizzle began to come down from the grey clouds above her. Frantically, the free runner looked around for where to go next. ‘No, no, no, no!’ Ruby’s eyes snapped from side to side, was the only access to this building’s roof REALLY the fire escape?!

“Got you now, Red.” The voice behind her sent a shiver up Ruby’s spine, and not in a pleasant way. “Nowhere to run to anymore, and nowhere to hide.” Ruby grit her teeth and screwed her eyes shut. The sound of grit and gravel crunching beneath boots grew deafening in her ears, until it, along with her heartbeat, were the only things she could hear.

‘C’mon, Ruby, move!’ She shouted at herself, but her feet remained glued to the ground. ‘CRUNCH.. CRUNCH.. CRUNCH’ the footsteps got closer and louder. ‘MOVE!’ Ruby mentally screamed. She might have imagined it, but right after she began to dart forward, Ruby swore she felt the sensation of fingers just missing the back of her neck.

“Damnit!” The bully behind her snarled, and tried to lunge for Ruby again, but she was already moving faster than he was. Normally, Ruby treated her jumps very, very carefully - despite what Yang thought - but there was no time for that right then. Careful guesstimation of the distance, a gradual build up to her top speed to build up the proper momentum, one final push to cannonball herself forwards and across the gap.. All of that went out of the proverbial window in the face of her destination.

With widening eyes, Ruby realized that her gamble didn’t pay off until it was too late. Instead of a solid ‘crunch’ beneath the tread of her sneakers before starting her jump, there was a wet ‘squelch’ as she failed to get the traction she needed. Ruby yelped as her ankle twisted painfully, and she tripped forwards into the gap rather than made a heroic jump across it.

If she’d had the time and presence of mind to think about it, Ruby might have found it funny that she felt like she looked like she was in an old cartoon. Suspended in midair, looking at the concrete below her, then at her target. By some miracle, Ruby was given a glimmer of hope when her fingers felt the ledge of the adjacent building beneath them.

It wasn’t enough, though. If the surface had been dry, and if she’d simply been climbing, Ruby might have been able to haul herself up. Things were different at the moment, and in the worst kind of way. Ruby locked her fingers in place and gripped as tight as she could, but it ultimately didn’t do nearly enough to arrest her movement.

There was a flash of pain as the nails tore off her fingers, and then the sensation of weightlessness ran through her. Seeing her fall, the bullies stopped and stared, horrified, as Ruby plummeted down. They didn’t stay to see what happened to her, preferring to begin to get the hell out of dodge instead.

The three of them were the least of Ruby’s concerns at the moment, though. Time seemed to be going in slow motion as she fell, even though Ruby only had a scant few seconds to try and figure out.. Something to do.

But, without wings or some sort of super speed, she was at the mercy of the laws of physics and gravity. The only thing she could think to do was to reach her arms up and tuck her hands around her head. Because of the weird way in which her momentum had carried her, Ruby could feel herself turn sideways in midair.

Ruby yelped as she felt her elbow ‘crunch’ into something - probably the guard rail of that building’s fire escape. Tears streamed down her face at the pain, but her hands remained locked in place. The crash into the railing sent Ruby tumbling. Round and round, over and over, until her head was spinning so much that she wasn’t sure which way was up.

In reality, she only tumbled a couple of times before the inevitable end to her journey, but it felt like much more than that to Ruby. The pain of her landing was so intense that Ruby didn’t even have the ability to vocalize her agony. There were.. Several snapping, popping, and ripping sensations in her side, right arm, the rear of the accompanying shoulder, and all that the girl had the ability to do was lay in a crumpled heap for what felt like hours.

Her vision swam slowly, and Ruby was sure that she’d lost at least a few minutes of the day to unconsciousness. Gradually and gently, Ruby tried to wiggle various parts of her body to assess her condition. The whole right side of her body screamed in pain when she even so much as twitched a muscle, but through tears and blood from a split lip, Ruby knew she had to move.

It was the most agonizing thing she’d ever had to do, but Ruby knew that she had to get out of the puddle in the alley she’d landed in. Her attackers must have been long gone by then, she thought. 

It was some small comfort to Ruby that she’d only eaten a light dinner the night before. The sheer pain, plus the vertigo from her fall and nausea from several sources won out against her mental fortitude in the end, causing stomach bile and what little food she had in her stomach to decorate her hoodie and the sidewalk below her

With only her left arm and foot to work with, and the pain from her injuries paralyzing her all too often, the sun was starting to rise in earnest by the time her bloody fingernails were even within two yards of the sidewalk.

Gasping and whimpering, Ruby pulled herself forward a little more before she couldn’t go any further. The last thing she heard before dizziness, nausea, and finally the blissful silence of unconsciousness took her was the gentle footsteps of some early risers out for a walk.

***^v^***

The gentle beep, whine, and hiss of machinery eventually reached Ruby through the haze of her near-coma. All of that, along with the dull - but increasingly powerful - throb of pain drew her back to the land of the living.

She coughed gently, and tried to open her eyes, but her muscles barely responded. Air rasped through her lungs and dry throat, and all Ruby could do to communicate that she was conscious again was mumble weakly. Thankfully, her condition was being monitored closely by the staff of.. Wherever she was.

As if from a great distance, the sound of footsteps reached Ruby’s ears. “Hey - easy there.. You were hurt pretty badly, you need to take things slowly.” She heard. It.. Sounded like a male, but Ruby’s mind was so foggy and hazy that she really couldn’t even be sure that it wasn’t a sheep or a horse that was talking to her. “Nurse, begin weaning her off of the sedatives - and decrease the interval between the doses of her pain medication.”

“Yes, Doctor.” Came the clipped, professional reply. It would be some time before Ruby really felt the effects of those changes, but the youth didn’t fall back to sleep as a result of the drugs in her system again. Ruby drifted in and out as the hours ticked by, or she assumed they did. When she was, eventually, able to crack open her eyes just a bit more, Ruby could see thin beams of light dancing across her blanket covered torso. Probably for the best, since even the fairly dim level of light in the room was.. Aggravating to her

“Welcome back, Miss Rose.” A voice from.. Behind her head? “Just try to relax.” Ruby had only just started to try and struggle to sit, but her muscles still weren’t totally cooperating, and the doctor’s voice convinced her to just wait until later to find out whatever had happened.

“We’ve contacted your family, your sister is on her way now.” Oh, good. Yang would know what to do. She always did. Ruby relaxed more then, letting her eyes flutter shut again. “Hey, stay with me a little longer.” Oh, damnit, what did they want now? “We need to do a couple more things, then you can rest. I promise.” It was the calm tone that won Ruby over in the end, not that she really had a choice in the matter.

“Okay, just a couple questions for you, Miss Rose. Do you know where you are? What day it is?” Ruby had to think for a second. She hadn’t forgotten those things, per se, but the exact words to answer were coming sluggishly. Ruby mumbled some gibberish that, by some small miracle, sounded enough like the words ‘Friday’ and ‘Vale Hospital?’ to satisfy the medical staff nearby. Who, she still hadn’t even really seen yet.

“Good, good. Now, if you can’t do this next bit, it’s okay, we’ll wait for you to wake up more. Can you open your eyes a little and follow my finger?” Even though the doctor said she was doing ‘good’, Ruby thought she heard a worried note in his voice. Again, she mumbled out her assent, and focused as hard as she could on opening her eyes and focusing.

Which.. Was a mistake, as she felt all of her insides do flips. With her vision swimming and her head feeling it was teetering on a tightrope, the doctor nearby was suddenly right by her head - Ruby didn’t know how she knew that, other than she felt his presence - with a bedpan. He didn’t touch her, but rather maneuvered the little silver tray under her mouth and nose as she hacked up another dose of burning fluids.

“I’m sorry, that was too much. Go ahead and rest, we can talk more later.” Ruby gave the smallest of nods at his words, and relaxed her muscles again. With her door slightly cracked open after her attending nurse or doctor left, she thought she could hear the words ‘concussion’ and ‘anti-nausea medication’. 

Well.. That wasn’t good.

***^v^***

Everything was nice and quiet, the stillness of the area meaning Ruby could actually try to rest without relying totally on the painkillers, but then the hurried sounds of boots on a tile floor roused her. Then, the worried shouting reached her ears.

“Just let me see her!” 

“Miss Xiao Long, please calm down! She was injured badly in the fa-” 

“I don’t care, let me see Ruby!”

There was a little more back and forth, but the volume hurt Ruby’s ears, so she tried to tune it out as best she could. What Ruby couldn’t ignore, though, was the door to her hospital room flying open and the blonde blur that raced to her side afterwards - followed in short order by a black-haired figure moving at a more reasonable pace.

“Oh my god, Ruby!” Yep, that was Yang’s voice, and Ruby grimaced as she opened her eyes. “What.. What the hell happened?! They said you fell!”

“Hi.. Yang..” Ruby’s voice rasped out. She tried to turn her head to look at her sister, but the motion translated more into a lazy lolling of her head to the side. Still, it got the job done, and Ruby looked weakly into the worried faces of Yang and Blake. “Y-yeah.. Fell..”

“We’re not totally sure what happened yet, Miss Xiao Long. It may be a little time before your sister is able to recall much - we’ve had her on some heavy medication to help her deal with the pain.” Though Ruby couldn’t see it too clearly, Yang put her face in her hands and openly wept while Blake gently rubbed her back. “Her injuries were.. Severe. But, with time and physical therapy, she stands a good chance of making a full recovery. We can talk about the details some more when Miss Rose here is a little more cognizant of her situation.”

Yang nodded solemnly, and the doctor left them alone with the parting words that he’d be back to check on them soon. “Oh, Ruby..” Yang said sadly, quietly, and gingerly put her hand atop her little sisters.

As Yang quietly mourned over Ruby’s condition, Blake leaned in to speak quietly in her ear. “You stay with her. I should.. Weiss should know, she seemed pretty worried too.” Just hearing Blake speak, with the voice that had always managed to soothe all her worries, calmed Yang enough that she nodded her assent. Blake squeezed Yang’s shoulder gently, then rose to exit the room and make her call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Phew! That break was very much needed. Got caught up with this, next week's chapter is almost done, and I have ideas brewing for other projects! Thank you all so much for your patience, and I really hope it was worth the wait!
> 
> By the way, does anyone else wanna strangle Cardin? Because I wanna strangle Cardin


	7. Bitter Medicine

-Bitter Medicine-

The number on her in-vehicle caller ID was unfamiliar, but Weiss absentmindedly tapped the bright green [ANSWER] button anyways. She was.. More worried than she thought she’d be. Why did she care so damn much about this? Ruby was (almost) a grown woman. She was allowed to disappear if she wanted to. Granted, there were consequences to such actions, and Weiss would ensure that she met them if that were the case, but Ruby was well within her rights to pull that sort of stunt.

“Hello?” She asked, tone clipped and slightly strained due to her frayed nerves. While Yang and her girlfriend spent the morning combing through the streets, checking the areas they knew Ruby sometimes liked to frequent, Weiss simply.. Drove. She didn’t know the girl nearly as well, and so thought the best way she could contribute was to just see if Ruby could be spotted.

“Weiss?” The voice on the other end asked. It sounded familiar, but the Schnee student couldn’t quite place it. “It’s Blake, Yang’s girlfriend?” Ah, that’s why she recognized the caller’s voice. She’d met Blake earlier in the morning when they were coordinating their search.

“Yes? What is it?” Weiss said quickly, then grimaced as she realized that she probably came off as either annoyed, desperate, or both. “Sorry.” She breathed out, and took a calming breath. “Do you have any news about Ruby?”

“Yeah - that’s why I’m calling.” Blake replied, and Weiss thought she heard a nervous note in her voice. “She’s at Northern Vale Memorial - the hospital near the, uhm, ‘slum’ area? Yang and I just got a call earlier from someone here.” Weiss’ eyes widened, and it took a little self control to not slam on her brakes and try to pull a power turn right there.

But, she wasn’t in an action movie and damn sure didn’t know how to drive like that, so Weiss instead pulled the best slightly less-than-legal U-turn she could, and started to weave through traffic on her way to the hospital. “I know the place, I’m on my way now.” Weiss told Blake. “How did she end up there? What’s going on?” There were too many unknowns here. Far too many questions and not nearly enough answers for Weiss’ liking.

“We’re not sure yet.” Blake answered, frustration clear in her tone. “The doctors can’t tell us much right now because they don’t know anything either. Just that.. Well, she was hurt pretty bad by the looks of it.” Weiss felt a pit in her stomach start to form at that. Just what the hell had her employee gotten herself into? And why did she care so much about a damn vandal?

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Weiss declared confidently, then said her goodbyes to Blake. The hospital was a solid fifteen minutes away, even with no traffic and hitting only a couple of lights, but Weiss would be damned if she went back on her word.

***^v^***

“Can I help you ma’am?: The young man at the desk asked her, and Weiss bristled even at that simple question. ‘Breathe.. He doesn’t know what you’re dealing with.’ Weiss reminded herself. She could see his eyes widen a little at the recognition of her white hair, and internally she smiled to herself.

Her family was known for its snowy locks, and just the knowledge of who she was related to tended to open a lot of handy doors for Weiss. “I’m here to see Ruby Rose, what room is she in?” She asked, though her tone gave the impression that she didn’t even consider the possibility of not getting what she wanted.

“I’m sorry, bu-” He paused, and visibly gulped as Weiss narrowed her eyes. “...But only family is being allowed to see her right now.” Weiss sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Her sister is the one who called me.” She explained slowly, through gritted teeth. Not strictly true, but what was he going to do? She was Weiss fucking Schnee and he was a receptionist at a hospital. “How else do you think I knew Ruby was here? Look, you can call her family down if you want to verify it, but I very much doubt that Yang is going to be happy about having to leave her sister.”

Weiss shifted her weight on to her other foot, and folded her arms across her chest while she waited for the inevitable. To the man’s credit, it only took him a few seconds to make his decision. “She’s.. In room four-oh-seven.” He said, glancing at the screen in front of him to confirm that. “Fourth floor, take a left, seven doors down.”

“Thank you.” Weiss said simply, and inclined her head as well. At the very least he wasn’t so incompetent as to make a big deal out of everything - as many people often did. Ugh. As many doors as her name opened, it also brought with it ribbons upon ribbons of red tape half the time.

Her heels clicked across the floor with purpose as Weiss made her way to the elevators. She’d learned to walk in them almost from the time she could stand on her own two feet, and so moved with a poise and grace that most people only achieved in their comfier footwear. Within the space of a minute, Weiss had entered the elevator, ridden the rickety old thing to the fourth floor, and exited out onto what she saw was labeled as an intensive care wing.

Her original plan was to march right on in to the room and start throwing her weight around - demanding what in the hell Ruby was doing, how in the hell she got hurt, and just why the hell she saw fit to worry everyone - but then she caught sight of Yang walking down the hallway in front of her.

Weiss coughed gently, but with purpose, to get the blonde’s attention, and when Yang turned, Weiss could see she was carrying a plastic bag, and she could hear the rustling of several small objects inside it. “Oh. Weiss.” That alone sent off alarm bells in Weiss’ mind. Even during the few normal conversations she’d had with Yang, she’d never been this.. Subdued. Something was very, very wrong.

“How is she?” Weiss asked, and quickly made her way over. When she got close, she could see that the other girl’s hands were trembling slightly. ‘She’s barely holding it together.’ Weiss thought to herself.

“She’s.. Ruby’s alive, at least.” Yang said, looking down the hallway where Weiss guessed Ruby’s door must be. “But she’s in a lot of pain. The meds look like they’re helping a bit, but not enough. The doctors can’t risk giving her more than the dose she’s already on.”

“Does anyone know what happened yet?” Weiss continued, falling into step beside Yang as she slowly started off again.

“No - she hasn’t really been able to talk much, but she’s getting there. The medication is making her kind of loopy.” Yang sighed, shaking her head. “But.. She broke her right shoulder in three places.” Weiss winced at that, then grimaced as Yang kept her list going. “Her upper arm in another two places, snapped her collar bone, fractured four ribs, dislocated her hip, cracked her elbow - she took a chip out of it, too - lost damn near all of her fingernails somehow, and got a concussion on top of it.”

“Was she.. Was she in some sort of accident or something?” Weis wondered aloud, and Yang shrugged in response. Hopefully they’d find out before long, but if the doctors had Ruby on medication strong enough that she wasn’t all there at the moment, they could be waiting to get their answers for a bit.

“We don’t think so.” Yang continued. “The doctor said that her.. That Ruby’s injuries aren’t what he would expect to see from a car crash.” The blonde mechanic pursed her lips, and hovered her hand over the door handle. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to be here?” Yang questioned.

“I.. I’m not sure what you mean?” Weiss asked, furrowing her brow at Yang’s protective questioning. “I’m worried about her.” She reiterated. Weiss wasn’t really sure why she was worried for Ruby, but she did recognize that perhaps the girl meant more to her than the other employees - barring Coco. Hell, they did spend a lot of time together.. Maybe it was inevitable that she’d begun to see Ruby as more than just an annoyance at work.

“Just try to not upset her.” Yang warned, and Weiss nodded as the other girl (finally) opened the door. Though the implication that she would dream of intentionally starting any sort of drama with anyone, let alone a coworker, made Weiss bristle a little, she elected to bite her tongue. For the moment.

“Oh..” Weiss breathed out, as Yang stepped forwards. The room was cramped, not at all like the spacious hospital ‘suites’ that she’d seen on one of several popular television shows. What really made the room seem small, though, was what seemed like an overabundance of equipment rather than the lack of space.

What dominated the room, of course, was the raised bed that Ruby lay on. She looked to be dozing at the moment, though her form shifted at the noise of the opening door. Blake was seated to Ruby’s left, tucked into a little bit of free space and reading a book.

“Hey, you.” Blake said, glancing up from the page she was on, then up again as she realized Weiss was there too. “Hello, Weiss.” She tacked on, if only for the sake of politeness. Blake didn’t dislike the Schnee girl, but she didn’t know her nearly well enough to be able to form her own opinion of her.

“Hey.” Yang said in response, sighing as she went over to Blake’s side. “Got us some snacks. I was shocked, but they didn’t have fresh fish” She grinned, and set the bag she had been carrying on a nearby table. Despite everything, Yang kept positive - or at least appeared to. It was one of the (many) things Blake loved about the girl. “Hopefully goldfish will do.”

“You’re awful.” Blake muttered, but grabbed the goldfish. Yang snickered to herself, grabbing a couple of candy bars for herself. After glancing between the table and Weiss, Blake nodded at the junk food as a silent offer, to which Weiss politely shook her head ‘no.’ She abhorred junk food, and actually had to fight to not wrinkle her nose at the offer.

“How- How long will she be unconscious?” Weiss finally asked, softly, while looking over at her employee. Though Ruby had a peaceful expression on her face, that occasionally twitched in response to whatever dream she was living through, Weiss couldn’t deny that the girl looked like death warmed up.

Butterfly bandages dotted her face and the bare bit of shoulder that was visible from underneath the sheets, keeping now-clean wounds closed. Weiss couldn’t imagine how many more of those little strips of white were tacked on to Ruby, given that Yang had mentioned her fractured ribs. What caught her attention most easily, though, was the full-arm cast and sling that Ruby’s right arm was trussed up in.

“She’s not unconscious.” Yang answered with a grimace. “Just dozing, mostly, is what the doctor said. Those sedatives I told you about are keeping her ‘stable’.” Weiss looked down and away from Ruby’s sleeping form, and was strangely wracked by guilt over what had happened. If only she hadn’t gotten into so many fights with Ruby over the past couple of weeks, if only she hadn’t pushed for this ridiculous deal where Ruby had to work off the damages done, if o-

“Snowflake?” Weiss furrowed her brow as the clearly drugged-up voice cut through her self loathing monologue. Though Ruby spoke quietly, all three pairs of eyes snapped to her as though she’d spoken through a megaphone.

After a second’s pause, Yang chuckled softly while watching Ruby’s eyes flutter shut again. With her hand settled gently on her younger sister’s uninjured shoulder, she looked back to Weiss.

“She’s been giving us nicknames.” Yang explained, and Weiss’ brow un-furrowed slightly. “Apparently I’m a Sunflower, and Blake is a Kitty-Cat.” Blake pursed her lips at that, but Weiss definitely saw the girl smile at the end of it. “We think it’s based on hair color.”

“Why a cat, though?” Weiss asked, and was answered by shrugs from the other girls. Weiss just resolved to ask Ruby later, about her own nickname at least. If she remembered. She wouldn’t be surprised if all of this turned into just a hazy blur for the girl.

“If you’re going to stay, you might as well grab a chair.” Yang said. The way she and Blake were smooshed together on their own chair looked.. Uncomfortable, to Weiss anyways, but the pair seemed to be perfectly happy with that arrangement. 

“But.” Yang added on, and fixed Weiss with a gaze that seemed to look into her soul as the white-haired ‘Snowflake’ sat down on Ruby’s opposite side. “I want to know why you’re so worried about her. I mean, I appreciate it and all. I just don’t understand it.”

“Let her stay if she wants.” Blake said soothingly, glancing up from her book. Though Weiss appreciated the support, at the same time she felt like she owed it to Yang to try and explain herself.

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Weiss said casually, looking across Ruby at the other two. The way Yang frowned, Weiss could definitely tell that she didn’t like that answer even if she did appreciate the candor.“I know I shouldn’t, but I do.” Weiss shrugged. “Maybe I feel responsible, maybe it’s because for some reason I started to like having that dolt around. I don’t know.” She said. Yang opened her mouth at the ‘dolt’ comment, but thankfully Blake’s hand on her knee halted the tirade she was about to go on.

Before any of them could continue things, there was a soft knock at the door before a nurse entered. “Okay, Miss Xia- oh.” The young woman said, pausing as she saw four people in the room instead of the expected two. “We’re really only supposed to allow family in here until Miss Rose wakes up..” She said.

Weiss gave the nurse a look that was part ‘death glare’ and part ‘do-you-know-who-I-am’, but thankfully Yang spoke up before she did. “They’re fine.” The blonde said, with a dismissive hand wave. “Blake is my partner, and Weiss..” Yang paused then, looking over at Weiss while pursing her lips a little. “Well, it’s fine if she stays.”

The nurse didn’t look at all convinced of that, but nevertheless let it slide. “Well, I just need to check her vitals and draw a little blood - then I’ll be out of your hair.”

***^v^***

The throb in her head was still there, and it felt like it had been there for her whole life at that point. Ruby tried to groan, but the only thing that came out of her throat was a dry rasp. It took her a second, but soon she fought through the confusion and remembered what was going on.

She was in a hospital, Ruby knew that much. Because she.. Was pushed? No, because she fell. I mean, it was totally that asshole’s fault that she fell, but that was splitting hairs. As with every other time Ruby had stumbled back into consciousness, she tried to wriggle about, and just like every other time - she made precious little progress.

She could shift the tips of her fingers around, but other than that, her entire right arm was immobile, and even those tentative movements sent a burning sensation up the whole of her limb. With cracked lips, Ruby grimaced, then tried to open her eyes.

Her head seemed clearer than it was before. The urge for her to rest was still there, but it felt like it was fully her own desire - not one that was being pushed on her from the outside. As Ruby cracked the lids of her eyes open, she shut them instantly again - blinded temporarily by the flash of light. Yang had always said she had a problem with patience.. Sometimes Ruby wished Yang could be wrong, just once.

Speaking of her sister, wasn’t that her voice she heard? Yeah, that was for sure Yang’s voice. But it was.. Quiet. Much quieter than Ruby was used to it being, but that made sense if they were in a hospital. The shuffling of feet reached her ears soon after, as Ruby was once again trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Much, much more slowly this time, Ruby let her eyelids drift open. Her vision was blurry and the light was still harsh, but she managed to keep her eyes open this time. Mostly. She blinked a couple of times, but then Ruby was able to actually look around.

When everything settled into place, Ruby saw something unexpected. It wasn’t Yang and Blake who were in her room, but Yang and Weiss. That threw Ruby for a loop, and for a second she thought she was hallucinating. The snow-haired girl turned back from the window she was looking out of, and Ruby saw her shoulders sag slightly in relief - or what looked like relief - at the fact that she was (barely) conscious.

“Good, you’re awake.” Weiss said, and the relief was abundant in her voice then. Which just made Ruby think she was hallucinating again. Since when was Weiss this.. Demure? Tame? This damn sure wasn’t the Ice Princess she’d come to know and (not) love.

Yang’s gaze snapped up from her phone when Weiss spoke, and she smiled weakly at Ruby. “Welcome back to the land of the living.” She joked, with a quiet chuckle. What was wrong with everyone?! It wasn’t like she died or anything..

Ruby groaned at the bad humor, and she rolled her head to the other side to look away from her sister. Hmm.. Wait.. The other side of the room was missing something - or someone rather. “Where’s Blake?” She asked, voice hoarse and throat painfully dry. She swallowed to try and get some of the moisture to return to her mouth, and grimaced at the miserable failure. The IVs hooked up to her left arm and wrist were busy pushing various bags of medicine and saline into her body, but they did nothing to actually keep her mouth salivated.

“Blake? That’s what you’re worried about?” Weiss asked incredulously. It earned her a dirty look from Yang, or at least the beginning of one, before she nodded in agreement. “Ruby.. Look at yourself.” Weiss’ voice dropped to a softer tone, and even with her vision still slightly out of focus Ruby could see the worry in her eyes.

“Ugh, I’m fine.” Ruby protested, and tried to pretend like she didn’t hear the slight slur in her raspy voice. “Barely even hurts any more.” With an audible slap, Yang’s face met her palm and the blonde shook her head at her lovably dumb little sister’s arguments.

“Ruby, they have you on the highest possible dose of painkillers right now.” Yang explained. She shook her head, then raised her gaze back to meet Ruby’s. “We looked at the x-rays - well, I did, since they wouldn’t let Weiss and Blake.” She huffed, and reached over to ever so gingerly squeeze her sister’s hand. “It’s a miracle that the worst thing you ended up with is a concussion.”

That wasn’t strictly true, and while Yang and Weiss knew that, Ruby at least had her suspicions. While it was true that the concussion was the single most worrisome thing, the sheer amount of broken bones and torn muscles in her right arm at least gave her head injury a run for its money in that category.

“What in the hell happened, Rubes?” Yang asked, exasperated. Ruby grimaced at the nickname. She absolutely hated when Yang called her that, but her sister had been doing it for her entire life. She was probably stuck with it by now.

“I.. Might have gotten into a fight.” She glared at Yang and her opening mouth, continuing on before her sister started her well-worn tirade. “Yes, Yang, again.” Weiss stayed passive then so she could just listen. She knew of Ruby’s confrontational tendencies, and though she didn’t approve, it was far from her place to interfere in familial affairs. She didn’t envy Yang, at any rate, since the girl had to act as both a sister and Ruby’s guardian. Or try to, at least.

“It was the same bully from the fight I got expelled over.” Ruby went on, after her staring and glaring match with Yang ended. “He ‘nd a couple of friends bumped into me while I was out walking.” With her free left hand, Ruby reached over to gesture at her ribs. “I think that’s where I got this.” Though she was more out of it than not for the majority of the day, in her slightly more lucid moments, Ruby had picked up bits and pieces of information until she had a relatively clear picture of the scope of her injuries.

“I did okay before since they didn’t wanna get in trouble, but I mean, out on the street..” Ruby grimaced, and Yang looked down while Weiss pursed her lips. “I managed to get free and ran up to a roof. Tried to make a jump, but I slipped on a puddle, then.. Well, I landed pretty hard.”

Yang sighed and nodded. She was just about the farthest thing from ‘happy’, but at least they had an idea of what happened. It would be enough, since she really didn’t want to hear the more grisly details of Ruby’s story.

“I’m going to go find your girlfriend.” Weiss said suddenly, pushing herself away from the windowsill she was leaning against. “She should be happy you’re awake, and I’m going to call Winter, too.”

“Whaaaaat?” Ruby whined.

“You’ve GOT to be kidding, after all of this, now you’re going to turn her in?” Yang scowled, rising to her feet. Her shoulders were squared and her fists balled, so Weiss quickly raised her hands to try and calm the fire of her temper.

“Ruby was assaulted, Yang.” Weiss pointed out. “Two or three or however many it was against her isn’t just a scuffle. I don’t blame her for this. Having a sibling who can actually do something about this will help, I promise.”

“Fine, do whatever yo-” Yang started, practically spitting her words, before Ruby interrupted her.

“Thank you, Yang.” Ruby said pointedly, forcing Yang to grumble but quiet down. “I really appreciate that, Weiss.” Ruby finished, and smiled for the first time in what felt like an age. It touched Weiss’ heart. Was it really possible for there to be a genuinely nice girl under that prickly exterior? She didn’t yet know, but Weiss was more intrigued than ever by her assistant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, this chapter turned out to be a monster. I'm trying to keep things between 3.5k and 4k words per week, so next week's entry into this saga will be an extension of this week's. So, I hope you like hospitals, ladies, gents, or whatever else you may be - 'cause you're getting more story that's set there!


	8. Bitter Medicine II: Trials & Tribulations

-Bitter Medicine II: Trials & Tribulations-

"Orange hair, approximately six feet tall - maybe a little more. Anything else?" Winter glanced up from the small notepad she was jotting things down on, to look back at Ruby's bed-bound form. The Sergeant had been just finishing up her lunch break when she got the call from Weiss that she needed some help with something.

Though Winter's plan for that day was to remain at the precinct and crunch down on some outstanding paperwork, while the officers under her command picked up the slack in the patrol routine, she never minded an excuse to go help someone - especially when that someone looked like a smaller version of herself.

"Well, I went to school with him." Ruby said, furrowing her brow. "I dunno his name though. Car… Something. Corbin? Cory?" She shrugged, with her one good shoulder, and winced at the discomfort. Yang grumbled at that, but kept quiet. She could chastise Ruby later. "I got expelled for fighting with him, actually."

That last bit definitely piqued Winter's interest. If there had been a fight that resulted in an expulsion - the school Ruby attended would have a record of it. "What school did this occur at?" She questioned.

"C-central Vale High." Ruby answered, and groaned as a wave of pain rolled through her right side. The girl fidgeted as little as possible, but with the last dose of her pain medication really starting to wear off, it was tough. "Yang..?" She whined, looking up at her older sister.

"Yeah, I'm on it." Yang said, setting a hand gently on Ruby's uncovered shoulder. "Just hang on for a little longer, 'kay?" She continued, speaking warmly, and shuffled past Winter. "I'm going to find a nurse, see if she can have any more medicine." Yang explained, and Winter nodded in understanding.

"I believe I have everything I need to start looking into this incident." Winter stated, and rose after Yang. "I trust the contact information you left with me before is still the best way to reach you, if I have any other queries or news?"

"Huh? Oh - yeah. Same number and all that." Yang confirmed, then opened the door for the both of them.

"I'll be in touch soon, then. Wish your sister well for me, and pass my regards on to Weiss if you would." Winter requested, before making a sharp turn to the left and marching off towards the elevators.

"Yeah.. Sure thing." Yang muttered at the retreating officer's back. 'Why not just do that yourself?' she wondered. Shaking her head, Yang turned to the right so she could head to the nurse's station for that floor.

As she drew closer to the central hub, two sets of hair - one white, one black - popped up from some nearby seating and made their way over to her As the mouths that belonged to each girl opened up, doubtless to spew questions at her, Yang raised a hand to stop them. "Need to find Ruby's nurse." She explained. Blake nodded in understanding, and while Weiss didn't object - she definitely looked slightly peeved at being snubbed like that.

"I saw her head down the hall towards another room a few minutes ago." Blake offered up, sidling over to her partner and leaning gently against her side. Subconsciously, Yang slipped her arm around Blake's waist to rest a hand on her hip.

"Shit. Thanks, Blakey." Yang sighed, and gave the girl a squeeze before letting go to step over to the counter. "Can you let Ruby's nurse - she's in 407 - that her painkillers are wearing off?" She asked the young man sitting at the computer there, who nodded in response. Yang wasn't super pleased that Ruby had to wait, but she knew that the nurses there were overworked and these things happened.

"I'm surprised that my s- that Winter wasn't here longer." Weiss said, falling into step with the other two as they made their way back towards Ruby's room.

Yang shrugged at that, pulling the door back open. Weiss and Blake had been asked to step out while Winter spoke to Ruby - and Yang was only allowed to stay since she was Ruby's guardian. Something about 'not wanting other opinions influencing her testimony' or something like that. "Seemed like she didn't need a lot, but yeah, I was a little surprised too." Yang replied casually. Her brow furrowed with worry as she saw Ruby trying to writhe as inconspicuously as she could on the bed. "Oh, Ruby.." She sighed.

Yang took a moment to pull the sheets up a little more from where they'd slipped down some. Ruby had mentioned being a little cold before, and Yang had been on her feet in a flash - trying to get some extra blankets for the girl. "Oh - Winter told me to 'pass her regards' on to you as she was leaving." Yang glanced at Weiss, who nodded in appreciation at the news.

"You know.. You don't have to stay." Yang continued slowly, turning to fully face Weiss. "I appreciate your concern, and caring enough to come visit, but it's really not necessary."

Weiss pursed her lips at that. How dare Yang question her wanting to be here. Sure, she wasn't related to the girl, and didn't have near the level of connection that she - or even Blake - had to Ruby, but she had still chosen to come! 'Breathe, Weiss. She didn't mean any offense. I think.' Weiss thought to herself.

"If you want me to go, I will." Weiss said, folding her arms and leaning against the same windowsill she'd been perched beside for probably four hours at that point. "But, I took the day off this morning to help with the search. No one will miss me at the office." She stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I don't mind." Came a squeak from the bed, and all three other girls turned towards the speaker. "'S kind of a nice distraction." Ruby said with a playful, but somewhat weak, smile. Yang smiled back, rolled her eyes, and nodded.

"Sure. Whatever you want, kiddo." She teased. All four of them relaxed as best as the situation allowed, chatting idly to pass the time and to help keep Ruby engaged.

***^v^***

"Okay, ready? One.. Two.. Three!" The male nurse helping Ruby counted down before helping her shift from the rolling hospital bed back into the one in her room. Between him, Yang supporting her other side, and Ruby's own stubbornness in trying to scramble over on her own - Ruby was back settled in place in no time at all.

"Wow, you move fast." The nurse said lightheartedly. "Just try not to overdo it, okay? Your doctor would have my head if you pulled something."

Ruby rubbed the back of her head in mild embarrassment and nodded her assent. "Yeah.. Sorry, I'll keep that in mind." She promised. The nurse gave her a little more friendly warning, before taking his leave of the three girls. While she and the nurse spoke, Yang and Blake took their seat to Ruby's left, and the girl cocked her head to the side when her third companion remained absent. "Where's Weiss?"

Blake and Yang shared a glance at Ruby's question. It was a fairly normal one, at least that's what Blake thought. Weiss had been in the room when Ruby was taken away, and wasn't here now. "She headed back to the office, a little after your X-rays started." Blake explained as she reached over to pick her book up off of the table.

She'd put a considerable dent in the amount of pages she'd gone through since that morning. Maybe she should have brought another.. "Oh. Well, that makes sense." Ruby continued on. She'd just opened her mouth to speak more, when the doctor who had been in charge of her care popped his head through the cracked open door.

"Knock knock!" He announced. Man, Ruby hated when people did that, but she smiled a little anyways. 'Smile and wave, just smile and wave..' She thought to herself, and inwardly smirked. "Just wanted to stop in and talk about Miss Rose's X-ray results." At that news Blake rose to her feet and shuffled forwards. She knew the drill by then. Family only, when it came to medical jargon and test results.

"That was fast." Yang mused, flicking her eyes over at her girlfriend while she and the advancing doctor maneuvered around each other. As Blake exited the room, the doctor took a brief look at the various machines and digital outputs connected to them. Ruby's nurses had briefed the man on her current condition beforehand, so it was really just a formality at that point, but it was a habit that he'd tried to keep up - checking the vital signs of all the patients in his care personally.

"We got lucky, in a sense." He explained, and stood by Ruby's side. "The patient who was due to be x-rayed before Ruby here opted to just.. Leave." The doctor pursed his lips, and held up a folder for each of the sisters to see. "Anyways, that's neither here nor there."

The doctor opened the folder, and stuck four scans on a backlit section of the wall behind him. "So, as you can see here, there are several fractures in the shoulder and upper arm - as well as the elbow." He began. Both Ruby and Yang appreciated that he used more layman's terms regarding the anatomy of the human body. Neither of them were even remotely knowledgeable enough in the medical field to know what he'd have said otherwise.

"The rear of her shoulder socket was fractured in three places, and her collarbone in two. Her upper arm has an oblique as well as two transverse fractures. The rib fractures are less serious, but they'll take time to heal" Neither sister was really positive what the exact terms meant for her breaks, but it helped that the doctor pointed to each break as he listed them off, so they could see exactly what he meant. "Her elbow has a crack in it, and there was a small 'chip' that was knocked out from the impact. The most worrying injury, however, is her concussion."

Both Ruby and Yang already knew that the concussion would probably be the worst of her injuries. It was her brain after all. Not that Ruby's limbs were any less important to her well being, but, well.. Her brain had to take priority in terms of her care.

"So, there's good news and bad news." The doctor continued after a small pause, and that drew a sharp look from Yang. In her experience, when there was both 'good' and 'bad' news on the table the good news wasn't very good, and the bad news was very, very bad.

"The good, first. Between the medication and rest, the swelling in Ruby's arm and side has gone down remarkably quickly. I expected us to have to wait until tomorrow at least to get these x-rays." Well, that… Was good, Yang supposed, as the doctor went on. "The bad news, though, is that you're going to need to have a few pins put in place to help your bones heal in the correct fashion."

Ruby groaned at that, leaning her head back on the bed. "I know, I'm sorry." The doctor sighed. "But, without the surgery, the risk is extraordinarily high that your bone structure will become malformed and hinder your range of motion even worse than with just the pins."

"I get it." Ruby grumbled, and folded her one good arm across her chest since she couldn't use both. "Doesn't mean I like it." She huffed, while Yang rolled her eyes.

"Try to not fall off any more buildings then." Yang deadpanned. Ruby glared at her half-sister, but Yang had already turned back to the doctor. "Do you have any idea when she'll be taken in?" She asked. The doctor shuffled his notes around, looking at a few sheets before turning his attention back to the girls.

"Tomorrow at three." He stated, with a firm nod in accompaniment. Yang and Ruby shared a glance then. "I know it seems soon, but the faster we get Ruby in, the faster she can really begin healing." The doctor explained. Their looks to each other weren't exactly subtle, after all.

"She'll also need to go through physical therapy, likely for some time, after this." Even though Ruby had expected to hear that, it still made her shoulder sink slightly to have it confirmed. "Don't worry, there are some great specialists in our network that we'll be able to set you up with. Well, that was all I had to talk about. I'll leave you with your nurses, and check in with you tomorrow before the surgery."

***^v^***

It had only been about a half hour after Yang called Weiss to update her, and about ten minutes after Ruby had gone in for her procedure, that the Schnee had shown up at the hospital again. Currently, Yang was balking openly at her, while Blake looked much more concerned.

"You can't be serious." Yang declared, staring deep into Weiss' eyes to try and spot any trace of deception in there. "This is a joke, right? You want to pay for this?"

When Weiss nodded, Yang sat back down and sighed heavily. Her forehead was in her hand, and Blake had shifted over to rub small circles between the blonde's shoulders.

"Not that we're not grateful for the offer." Yang's shoulders tensed at Blake's use of 'we', speaking for both of them, but Blake's fingers pressed down and worked to push her worries away. "But, why? I realize this is blunt, but you and Ruby don't really have much more than a boss-and-employee relationship. You're certainly not on stellar terms with us either." Blake pointed out.

Weiss grimaced, but couldn't deny that. She and Ruby tended to bicker at the office, and other than when she'd met with Blake and Yang to help try and find Ruby, her previous meetings with Ruby's guardian had been tense at best.

"Well, it kind of goes back to what I told Yang the other day." Weiss shrugged, and stared at the depression in the bed where Ruby had been laying. "Part of me feels responsible for this, somehow."

"But, you're not." Yang pointed out. Weiss sighed, and nodded at that. She couldn't deny that either. No matter what mental gymnastics the law student tried to do, she couldn't get past the fact that, despite her feelings, this wasn't her fault.

"I know that!" Weiss snapped, annoyed that someone would actually push back against her the one time she decided to be altruistic. "Will you at least let me help, then? With some of it? Hell, call it a loan." Weiss was starting to seem desperate then, and it sickened her, but she pressed on. "One that Ruby can work to pay off along with the repainting of the office."

"Why you stuck-up, precious, annoying little bi-" Yang growled, slowly pushing herself up from her chair for effect. Ever the voice of reason, though, Blake tugged gently at one of Yang's golden locks. The blonde let scarcely anyone touch her fiery mane, and so when Blake actually 'used' her hair to get her attention, it worked - very well.

Yang allowed Blake to stand beside her, and hunched down slightly so they could whisper to each other, with as much privacy as a hospital room allowed.

"I know she didn't really phrase it well, and I know you don't like her, but-" Blake whispered soothingly, and raised her finger to push it against Yang's lips when her partner opened her mouth. "But. We really need this." Blake looked down at the floor for a moment, and the shame in her eyes is what caused Yang to relax her aggressive stance.

"This could wipe out our savings. What about moving out, or that bike you wanted?" Blake pointed out. "Ruby helping out, or starting to, has been great, but.. This will set us back years without a miracle. Unless we can work something out with Weiss."

Yang stood silent after Blake had finished, for so long that the girl thought she would refuse anyways. When Yang turned to Weiss once more, though, it wasn't to yell. "Fine." Yang spat. Her stance wasn't openly hostile any more, but Yang was still very clearly displeased and ashamed. "You can help. But we're not a charity case, and we will pay it back."

"Of course." Weiss said graciously, with a small nod. She had no intention what-so-ever of allowing that to happen, but letting Yang think that she would was the more prudent move than denying her. "This isn't the place to talk about that, though. We can discuss it later?"

Yang nodded, brooding sullenly, as she sat back down with her girlfriend. "Thank you." Blake whispered, and gave Yang a peck on the cheek.

***^v^***

"Congratulations, Miss Rose, I think that's that!" The doctor said with a smile. For the past three days, he'd watched Ruby recover faster than most did after injuries such as the ones she'd sustained. It was quite remarkable, honestly, but she was young. People of her age, who were in good health as she were, tended to be fiercely resilient.

"Finally." Ruby groaned, as she relaxed into her bed. Her 'exercise' routine, so far, had consisted just of light stretching with the parts of her body that were still totally functional. She didn't really see the point in it, but the doctor had insisted on it, and it at least kept her busy.

She was alone today, which.. She didn't mind, but also kinda did. Ruby knew that Blake and Yang had their jobs to think of - none of them had enough in their savings that they could really afford to take more than a day or two off. Except for Weiss, who Ruby had needed to ask directly to give her some space.

Ruby appreciated the company, really, and she wasn't mad that Weiss wanted to stay, but she also needed some room to breathe and gather her thoughts. She had an inkling that the hospital staff were kind of relieved too, since it was always a chore to maneuver around everyone when they were here.

"And.. Looks like word just came down from your doctor." The therapist continued, looking at his pager. Ruby cocked her head to the side, and waited for him to explain further. "Discharge paperwork." He said, glancing her way with a smile. "You're due to be released around six today, after the doctor checks back in with you."

If she weren't stuck in a hospital bed and damn near crippled, Ruby would have jumped for joy. Instead, she just grinned wolfishly. It was better than nothing, at any rate. "You said your phone was broken in the accident, right?" He questioned, and Ruby nodded. "Hmm, alright. Well, the nurses should have your sister's number on file. We'll get in contact with her ASAP."

"Y'know, I kinda thought I'd be here a lot longer." Ruby wondered aloud. The therapist kept an eye on her with his peripheral vision, putting away various pieces of his kit so he could move on to the next patient he had to see that day. "Don't people, like.. Have to stay in the hospital until they're all healed up?"

"Common misconception." The therapist explained. He slung his bag over his shoulder, but stepped closer to Ruby's bedside. There was time yet to talk some more. "Since you live with others, and don't require critical care - you can be released into your guardian's custody. Your sister, in this case." Ruby nodded along as he spoke.

"But, I'll let your doctor get into all of that when he stops by - I'd rather not hype you up with ideas about what exactly will happen, then have him flip it on its head." He finished, shooting Ruby a grin. "It was nice working with you, Ruby. But, I'd rather not see you in here again. No offense."

"You won't, I promise." Ruby said with a little chuckle. "Thanks for helping me out." The therapist gave her a last smile and a wave before leaving, and then Ruby was alone again. She sighed to herself, and looked over at the window.

There was still so much to process.. Things about her accident, the fight, her outpatient care. Too much. Ruby screwed her eyes shut and willed the overwhelming deluge of thoughts to subside. The one small silver lining to things, so far, was that Winter had gotten back in contact with Yang the day after her last visit.

Her old school's records named the boy she'd gotten into a fight with as Cardin Winchester, and after Ruby identified him from a picture as being the same person who she was running from, Winter had enough probable cause to go find him.

Ruby didn't really know what would happen after winter spoke to him. She doubted that Cardin would confess to anything - he seemed far too boneheaded for that. Honestly.. She really just wanted to put this all behind her, despite Yang and Weiss pushing for her to help bring him to justice.

***^v^***

"Hey sis! Ready to get out of here?" Yang said, an infectious smile on her face as she walked into Ruby's room.

"You have no idea." Ruby admitted. Usually Yang's overabundance of happiness and warmth tended to annoy her somewhat, but Ruby was just so glad to finally be on her way out of that damn hospital in her damn room looking at the same damn things that she didn't mind Yang's sunshiney nature at all.

"Well, Miss Rose has all of her paperwork, and I believe I saw you signing her discharge forms at the desk, so we should be all set." Ruby's doctor said, and Yang nodded. "Perfect - I'll get someone to bring a wheelchair, and then we'll be on our way. Where are you parked?"

"Deck 2-B. If you're bringing her down, I'll go pull up to the curb by the entrance?" Yang suggested, and the doctor nodded. "Great. See you in a minute, sis." She finished, and took advantage of the fact that Ruby couldn't get away from her by ruffling her hair. The blonde grinned as she heard her captive younger sister yelling after her as she left to, finally, get ready to bring her home.

The ride back to the apartment was quiet, but peaceful. Yang drove more carefully than she usually did, after seeing Ruby wince when she drove over a pothole a little too aggressively. Damn city officials not wanting to fix the roads..

"So, two whole months." Ruby heard Yang say, and turned from the window to look over at her sister. "It'll be tough, but at least you're not stuck in a single room any more." Ruby knew that Yang was just trying to make conversation, and that her condition was something that they'd have to discuss - and soon - but she was getting tired of every talk they had being about that.

"Yeah. Two months 'til the cast comes off, then however many months after of physical therapy." Ruby sighed, and shifted so she could relax a little more comfortably. By then, Yang was pulling into the parking deck and looking for a spot. "I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm gonna miss work. At least it gave me something to do." Ruby griped, and Yang just grinned at that.

"I know the feeling." Yang chuckled. "Work sucks sometimes for me too, but I'd go crazy if I was left alone all day. But, hey, at least you have the TV and your phone? I'm not sure how well you'll be able to play any games right now, though." She mused, and Ruby whined. "Think you'll need the chair?" Yang asked, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening her door.

Ruby shook her head at the question, and carefully maneuvered herself around so she could get out. "No, I think I'll be fine. 'S not like I broke my foot, ya know?." The hospital had been kind enough to hook them up with a basic, non-hospital issue wheelchair that they brought home.

"Well, you better not find a way to do that while you're on bed rest." Yang not-so-playfully threatened. Though Ruby wobbled slightly as she slowly got to her feet, she remained standing. With Yang by her good side, in case she stumbled in any way, the sisters began to end their journey home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Man, this one came down to the wire! I was unexpectedly busy this week, and so the editing for this didn't get done until last night! I don't have a whole hell of a lot to say about this chapter, but I have exciting news for the future of my writing on here! Around the time of the new year, I'll be editing my posting schedule. Uploads will occur every two weeks instead of every week, since I expect my job to start having more hours to go around again, and I plan on (finally) going back to school. As well, I'll be running two stories at once, with each story getting one post per month - and an occasional extra post for a RWBYverse story with my own OC team. My main page will be updated soon with a posting schedule, and I look forward to revealing more as all of this starts to come together.


	9. Chained

-Chained-

“I just never thought I’d be getting sponge baths from my sister, you know?” Ruby sighed, leaning her head back against the couch. Whatever was on TV at the moment, it seemed to be some mindless reality TV show involving infidelity and an old man who encouraged the couples to fight, was draining her sanity at a shocking rate.

Blake nodded in understanding, looking up from her book and her tea for a moment to study Ruby. The last week and a half had been tough on Ruby, to say the least. On the one hand, she was home from the hospital, and wasn’t in a crippling amount of pain - most of the time. On the other hand, though, she was pretty much confined to the apartment until she healed up more.

Both Blake and Yang could see that Ruby was getting antsy. The shoulder spica cast she’d been saddled with made any movement of her right arm - save for her wrist and fingers - impossible. In Ruby’s own words, it was a bitch to have to use, but it’s not like they had any other options.

It was that knowledge that helped cool Ruby’s temper somewhat. The alternative to having Yang help her out with embarrassing tasks was having Blake do it, and Ruby didn’t think she could come out of that with her pride at all intact. Yang might poke fun at her a little, but Ruby knew that the blonde was just trying to keep her spirits up. Plus, Yang was her sister. She was both allowed and expected to tease her.

Blake was by far the better girl to be stuck at home with, though. While Yang tended to chatter on and on and on and on, with the TV cranked up a bit so that it could still be heard over her, Blake was content to just.. Carry a conversation as it flowed naturally, with something a liiiiiitle bit more tasteful left on as background noise. Unfortunately, at eleven in the morning, there wasn’t much on except what they were already watching.

Yang and her partner had each reached an arrangement with their employers so that Ruby was never left alone at home, and since she’d been discharged from the hospital, things had gone pretty smoothly. Or so, that’s what Ruby thought that she was meant to believe. The walls between her bedroom and the other girls’ weren’t nearly thick enough that she couldn’t hear them talking at night if she really tried.

All it took was pressing her ear against the wall, and Ruby was privy to the fact that Yang and Blake were pretty worried. Their employers were understanding, but only to a point. As good as they each were at their respective jobs, their good will was running dry. Even though Blake and her sister never showed her anything but smiles and kindness, once Ruby knew the reality of their situation, the pain and worry in their eyes became all too obvious.

If she’d had the ability to do so, Ruby would have ran. Situations like this were exactly why she wanted to roam the streets so often - she could avoid emotions and responsibilities, if only for a night.

“You okay?” Blake asked, drawing Ruby out of her introspective moment. Amber eyes were laced with concern and trained directly on her. Ruby shifted uncomfortably, as she usually did when Blake employed her mind-reading powers. Or, at least seemed to. Ruby had never, and probably would never, get over how uncanny Blake was at reading people.

“I just.. I’m worried tha-” Ruby started, feeling butterflies dance in her stomach as she began to express her emotions. The nervous teen was saved by the bell, almost literally, by her phone ringing, though. With a grumble, Ruby reached into her pocket and pulled the thing out. She was about to simply silence the ringer, when she took a second look at the screen.

‘What could she want?’ Ruby thought to herself, before glancing up at Blake. “It’s Miss Schn- I mean, Weiss.” Ruby said with a sigh. “Can we talk more later?”

Blake nodded, and rose with a little smile of understanding on her lips. “I’ll give you a little privacy and go grab some coffee. I know how thin these walls can be.” ‘What the fu-’ Ruby thought, as Blake smiled coyly and made her way out of the apartment. Her phone rang again, and Ruby blinked before turning her attention back to it.

After only another moment’s thought on Blake’s apparent superpowers, Ruby hit the green icon on her phone, then tapped the speaker icon since she had the place to herself. Maybe. Blake could probably still hear everything she did, somehow.

“Hello?” Ruby asked. It was odd for Weiss to call her in general, especially so since it was technically her off-day. Well, ‘medical leave’ was the term HR had used when Ruby had spoken to them, but that was semantics. “Weiss?”

“Good morning, Ruby.” The voice on the other end was definitely that of her boss, but Ruby detected a somewhat alarming lack of bite in her tone. Weiss sounded almost friendly, and at the very least was far less hostile than she’d been throughout their short time knowing each other.

“How have you been settling in?” Weiss asked, and Ruby cursed herself for letting the silence between Weiss and herself drag on. “I don’t believe we’ve spoken since you came by last week to fill out that paperwork.”

“Oh, yeah, uhm.” Ruby wracked her brain for what to say. Talking to Yang and Blake was easy - one was her sister, and the other was her sister’s girlfriend that she’d developed her own friendship with. Weiss was her boss, and the woman who Ruby still thought would send her off to jail with a word and a wave of her hand if she wanted.

“Things here have been alright, I guess.” Ruby answered. It felt a little weird to be having a casual conversation with Weiss, but.. Ruby was bored. Really bored, being stuck at home. “Not a whole lot to do, though. I’ve been reading a lot, but it’s kinda all I’ve been doing, ya know?”

Ruby heard a humm of agreement through her phone, and could picture the stoic nod that Weiss would have been giving. It struck her then, that she actually had started to get to know Weiss fairly decently well over the past few weeks. Unconsciously, Ruby had grown used to having someone else around that she could talk to - even if that talking was bickering half the time. Besides, they didn’t really fight like Ruby and Yang did. Her spats with Weiss were just that, little flare ups that smoothed over quickly.

“Yeah, I know the feeling. Back when I lived at home, I was.. Well, kind of, in the same boat.” Weiss replied sympathetically. Ruby blinked at the little tidbit about her boss’ home life. Usually Weiss kept her personal business at arms length, so just being offered that little nugget of information was surprising. “TV never interested me, and since I had tutors come by instead of going to a ‘proper’ school, I didn’t have to leave the manor much.”

Ruby nodded along as her boss spoke, and then blushed as she remembered that Weiss couldn’t actually see her. “O-oh, yeah. Well.. I’m sure you at least had more to read there than I do here.” ‘Damnit, Ruby, get it together! It’s not like you’re asking her out or anything.’ The apartment-bound girl thought to herself.

The laughter that came through Ruby’s phone was both as regal as she’d have thought Weiss’ laugh would have sounded like, but also a lot more girlish than Ruby would have imagined. “I wouldn’t doubt it.” Weiss answered. It sounded to Ruby like Weiss wasn’t, for once, bragging - but was more.. Making fun of herself, almost. Which threw her for a loop. Why self-depreciate when your bedroom probably had more square footage than most apartments? “Still, I think I ran into the same problem. Too much of the same thing. No matter what book I opened, what author I read, it was still hours upon hours of reading.”

“Ugh, you’re not wrong.” Ruby griped, and shifted to lay back on the couch. The motion aggravated her shoulder, but she grimaced and suppressed the urge to squeak in pain. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m starting to actually miss work.” Even though they were just talking on the phone, Ruby could sense the smile on Weiss’ lips as she spoke on.

“Don’t get too wistful, you’re not missing a lot here. That new lawyer my father sent over - Orvil? - is making noise again, just like last week.” Ruby heard the other girl grumble as she spoke, and she pursed her lips at the news. “Believe it or not, having you around actually made having to deal with him more bearable. Plus, you’ve gotten pretty good at keeping the paperwork in order and from piling up too much.”

With an opportunity like that, how could Ruby resist teasing her boss? “If I didn’t know better, I’d guess that you actually missed me, Snowflake.” Ruby said with a grin. As the second, and then third, second of silence ticked by, though, she wondered if Weiss was offended or something.

“...What did you call me?” Ruby heard Weiss ask, and she cocked her head to the side in confusion before, once again, remembering that they were on a phone call.

“I, uhm.. Snowflake?” Ruby answered nervously. She began to fidget a little back and forth where she laid on the couch. “I’ve always called you that, though.” Ruby pointed out. Weiss had never had a problem with the nickname before, she thought, so why was she making an issue now?

“Ruby, no..” Weiss replied softly, voice thick with sadness. “You first called me that in the hospital. It was while you were still mostly unconscious, I had just gotten there to meet with Blake and your sister.” Weiss paused, and Ruby felt a pit start to form in her stomach.

“You, briefly, started to wake up, and when you saw me you asked if I was a snowflake. Blake and Yang were a kitty-cat and a sunflower, respectively.” Ruby heard an angry sigh come through the phone, then. “The doctor mentioned that something like this might happen.” Weiss grumbled.

“Yeah, he talked to me about it before I got discharged.” Ruby picked up, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “He said he didn’t expect there to be any memory loss from when I hit the ground, but that, well, I guess mixed-up memories are pretty common.” She paused then, looking over to where she’d set her phone on the armrest next to her head.

“Have I really never called you that before? I swear I have.” Ruby went on, not wanting to talk about her ‘condition’ too much. The doctor had given her as close to a clean bill of health as he could, but made it very clear that there could be some lasting side effects.

“No. No, you haven’t.” Weiss definitively answered, and Ruby (quietly) smacked her (good) palm into her face. “What was that? Are you okay?” Ruby heard immediately after, and grimaced. ‘Not quiet enough, I guess’ She mused.

“Yeah, I’m fine. There was a fly that landed on my leg, tried to get him.” Ruby lied, then tried to redirect their conversation back to something less depressing. “But, back to earlier. Is the work there piling up that much?”

“It’s not that bad right now.” Weiss replied. “I’ve got Penny and Coco helping me out with it. But, you knew the systems better than them.” While Weiss wasn’t gushing over Ruby’s skills, she was honest about Ruby’s role and her value to her.

Ruby gulped then, and hoped Yang would forgive her for this. The homebound Ruby just knew that her sister wouldn’t like this at first. “You know, I could probably do some work here.” She offered after a second. Ruby could already picture Weiss stiffening in her chair, displeased with the idea herself.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Ruby.” Weiss answered, and Ruby let her good shoulder sag in defeat. “Unless you have a way there to scan our old physical file copies into our database, I’m not sure what you can really do. A good chunk of your job is helping me manage my affairs, after all, and besides - letting potentially sensitive documents out of the office for an unknown amount of time would be a serious breach of various clients' trust.”

Each point that Weiss made hit Ruby like a hammer. Even though everything she said made sense, it was still one more reason that Ruby would be stuck at home, bored out of her mind. “However.” Weiss then continued, causing a flutter of hope to spark in Ruby’s chest. “It’s not like we aren’t on top of our current caseloads here. If you’re so desperate for something to do, I can work remotely.”

Ruby juuuuuust barely resisted the urge to hop up and pump her fist in excitement. ‘Wait, what? Why am I so excited? It’s just work, and it’s not like I really like seeing Weiss that much.’ She thought, but couldn’t suppress the grin she gave her phone. “Sweet! At least it’ll give me something else to focus on. I’ll see you soon? Oh, you need my address, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. HR has it, but it would be more than inappropriate for me to ask them for it.” Truth be told, Weiss wasn’t totally sure that the arrangement she was making with Ruby right now was the most ethical thing she’d ever done either, but oh well. If - and that was a big ‘if’ - it came to light that she’d visited Ruby on company time, to help the girl occupy her mind, a few fistfuls of cash were sure to make that little wrinkle smooth once more.

After a little more chit-chat between the pair, Ruby ended the call - once more calling Weiss a Snowflake. It earned her a quickly cut-off tirade from her boss, but she grinned like an idiot to herself.

Ruby rose to her feet and set her phone on the end table next to it, stretching her arm up to work some of the stress out of her body. Funny how sitting around all day could make her tense up more than jumping through the air and running around like a superhero.

As she yawned, Ruby heard the door click open, and looked over to see Blake walking back in with two coffees, the logo on them showing that she’d gone to her favored cafe right up the street. “Oh, you didn’t have to do that..” Ruby said, though her voice was very grateful for the imminent boost of sugar and caffeine. Honestly, if she could pump the stuff right into her veins, she would.

Blake shook her head in response, and made her way back to the seat she occupied before. “So, how did you talk with Weiss go?” She asked casually, deftly opening her book to the point she’d stopped at. Ruby never knew how she did it, but Blake had a knack for memorizing the exact spot she’d paused at before. She didn’t use a bookmark, dog-ear the pages, or memorize the page numbers. Blake was simply enough of a bookworm that she just.. Knew.

“Pretty well, I guess. She said something weird, though.” Ruby furrowed her brow, as Blake lowered her book once more to focus on Ruby. “She said I.. Started calling you guys stuff, while I was in the hospital?” When Blake started snickering under her breath, Ruby knew it was true. “...What did I call you and Yang?” It wasn’t that Ruby didn’t believe Weiss, but hearing it from Blake would confirm it.

“Kitty-Cat, and Sunflower.” Blake said. Her voice wasn’t teasing, which Ruby very much appreciated, but she groaned in embarrassment anyways. “Well, it could have been a lot worse.” Blake pointed out. Whether she meant to be soothing or not, Ruby still felt like crawling into some dark corner and just withering away.

“Not the point..” Ruby grumbled. “I accidentally called her ‘Snowflake’ on the phone. Ugh, I wonder if she’ll let me work from home forever.” Blake laughed softly, looking back down at her book.

“I’m sure you’ll find some way to survive, Ruby.” Blake joked. ‘Well, at least she wasn’t here to hear it. Still, better her than Yang.’ Ruby thought.

“Oh, speaking of her.” Ruby said, perking up as she remembered the whole reason for the call. Or, well, the end result of it anyways. “She’s, ahhh… Coming by here in a little bit.” With a shy grin and a rub to the back of her neck, Ruby glanced over at Blake to gauge her reaction.

When Blake just nodded and went back to reading, Ruby felt the wind go out of her sails just a bit. I mean, it was good that Blake didn’t have an issue with it, but Ruby had expected SOME kind of reaction. “You’re not upset?” She asked, curious.

“No, why would I be?” Blake shot back, all too casual while turning the page in her novel.

“It’s just, well. Hmm.” Ruby paused, and brought a hand to her chin in thought. “Yang would be.” She continued eventually.

“I’m not your sister.” Blake pointed out, and fixed Ruby with a steady gaze. “I know she can come off as overprotective, but that’s because she is.” ‘Understatement of the century.’ Ruby thought. “She loves you, you know that, Ruby. You’re the only real family she has left. Your uncle’s work, and his other habits, keep him busy, and Raven.. Well, Yang doesn’t talk about her much, but suffice to say she’s not family.”

Ruby absorbed all of that, and sighed softly as Blake finished. “Yeah, I know. Thanks, Blake.”

“Of course.” Blake smiled. Another minute or so passed before Blake looked back up to study Ruby. “I know you don’t have to be at the office today, but are you sure you want Weiss to see you like that?” She questioned.

With a squawk, Ruby looked down at herself, realizing that she was still wearing her slightly tattered - but well worn in - pair of heart-and-rose themed pajama pants, and her stained spaghetti-strap sleeping shirt with a wolf emblazoned on the front.

“Eh he he he..” Ruby laughed nervously, glancing at the clock. The office was about fifteen minutes away, with minimal traffic. The call had ended about twenty minutes ago, and she’d been talking with Blake for five, so.. “Think you can help me change?”

“Just be glad I’m not your sister.” Blake teased lightly, and rose to help the wounded Ruby find something a little more presentable to wear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Huh. This might be the first chapter I've written without a proper scene change in it.. Feels weird. Anyways! This coming Sunday I'll be holding a funeral service and burial for Ruby's dignity if anyone wants to attend. Refreshments will be provided.


	10. Fresh Starts

Though Weiss had a little difficulty finding a spot to park, the drive to the Xiao Long-Belladonna residence wasn’t a bad one. Traffic was a little annoying, but that was nothing new. Nothing she didn’t deal with on a daily basis, at any rate. At least on the drive over to see Ruby she had something other than a talk show to occupy her mind.

Weiss had made a short detour on the way over, grabbing a snack for herself and a little something extra for Ruby, but she still made very good time overall. The Schnee heiress felt the urge to grimace as she walked through the lobby and to the elevators. While the building wasn’t _filthy_ , Weiss found the drab brown interior to be far, far below the standards to which she would have her own space cleaned.

The elevator ride up to where Ruby and her sister stayed (plus Blake, Weiss reminded herself) had one or three somewhat disconcerting hiccups during its journey, but she got there unharmed - save for her lightly frayed nerves. ‘ _Now then, which was it..?_ ’ She thought to herself.

After a second of failed recollection, Weiss opted instead to fish a business card out of her pocket (her own, of course) that she’d written Ruby’s address down on. With her feet now moving in the right direction, it was a matter of less than a minute until she was standing outside of the proper door. Though, if she thought about it.. Since the elevator was at the end of the hall, wouldn’t she have been going in the right direction regardless? Unless she passed the door. ‘ _Focus!_ ’ Weiss yelled at herself mentally, shaking her head to clear it.

With no more reason to delay, not that she really had a reason or want to, Weiss raised her hand to knock. ‘ _Gods, am I actually_ **_nervous_ ** _?_ ’ She thought to herself, swearing that there was just the barest hint of moisture in the palm of her hand. ‘ _Calm down, you’re just making a social call. Nothing that all of those dinner parties back home didn’t prepare you for._ ’

“Hello, Weiss.” Blake greeted, after the door opened. “Ruby mentioned you were stopping by, come on in.” With permission given, Weiss smiled gratefully and entered the.. Well, the politest word to use would be ‘humble’ living space.

“Thank you.” Weiss returned, standing in the doorway and looking around. “How is she doing?” She asked Blake, not seeing Ruby in the central area.

“I can hear you, you know!” Came a shout from an opened doorway on the left. “I’m - urgh, this damn shirt! - doing fine!” Blake shook her head ruefully at Ruby’s antics.

“She insisted that she didn’t need that much help. I disagreed, but then the doorbell rang, and well.. Here we all are.” Blake said with a soft chuckle. “I boiled the kettle not too long ago, would you like some tea?” She offered, and Weiss was a little surprised. Even if Blake was just playing the part of a good hostess, hospitality paired with genuine-seeming warmth was somewhat anathema to Weiss.

“I- Thank you, that sounds lovely.” Weiss accepted graciously. When Blake walked over to the small kitchen, Weiss felt lost, however. Being raised the way that she was, Weiss was fairly unsure of what to do when the social protocols she’d been steeped in weren’t being followed to the letter. To put it lightly and in layman’s terms, Weiss was _very_ out of her element here.

Taking matters into her own hands, Weiss adapted and stepped forwards into the den. She was sure that she’d have to disinfect her semi-formal business skirt about four and a half times - minimum - before being confident that it could be worn again, but Weiss took a cautious seat on the small two-person couch that directly faced the TV.

“Sorry! Took a little longer than I thought without Yang or Blake.” Came Ruby’s voice, shortly before the cast-laden girl came bounding into the room. Or, well, as much as one could ‘bound’ while wearing a cast that immobilized close to a quarter of one’s body. Even though it only encapsulated Ruby’s right arm and part of her upper torso, the cast was bulky enough and positioned awkwardly enough that it restricted her speed and freedom of movement to a fair degree. ‘ _Must be awful for someone like her._ ’ Weiss thought to herself, but didn’t let her thoughts show on her face, choosing instead to smile and shake her head.

“Don’t worry about it, I only just got here, remember?” Weiss chided lightly. Her tone was friendly (had she always felt this amiable towards Ruby?), and Ruby took a cross-legged seat on the cushion next to her while she spoke.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Ruby continued, wriggling about until she was comfortable with her positioning. Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Ruby took a deep breath and then looked over - just a little awkwardly - at her boss. “So, you’re sure it’s okay for you to be here?” Ruby asked tentatively.

“I’m sure.” Weiss confirmed, pulling a small-form laptop out of her bag and opening it. “I haven’t even taken the bar yet, remember?” She pointed out. “Pretty much everything I do at the office is either learning by watching and assisting, or administrative duties.” Ruby nodded in acquiescence, leaning back against the cushions.

“I’d just hate for anyone to get in trouble over it.” Ruby continued, which caused Weiss to roll her eyes and wave her hand dismissively at her employee.

“If I even thought it would be an issue, I wouldn’t have come.” Weiss promised. By that point Blake was just rejoining the pair. Ruby still had some of her coffee left, and Blake knew that the girl didn’t really like tea anyways, so the two mugs she carried were hers and Weiss’. “Thank you.” She said politely, lifting the mug to her lips.

The taste was far more pedestrian than the brands Weiss favored in her own home, but it was piping hot and would be rude to refuse. Still, tea was tea, and she subscribed to the theory that - similarly to pizza - all tea was good tea.

“I dunno how you can drink that stuff when it’s so hot.” Ruby commented, watching both Blake and Weiss take far longer drinks of the near boiling liquid than she thought would be healthy. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Worth it.” Both of the others said in almost perfect unison, which caused all three of them to raise an eyebrow. “Great minds, I guess.” Blake said after, with an accompanying laugh. With Ruby already somewhat suspicious that Yang’s girlfriend was a mind reader, she now found herself questioning whether Blake and Weiss were somehow telepathic as well. ‘ _Darn it. Why am I the only one without superpowers?!_ ’ Ruby thought to herself, and blinked as she saw Blake study her for a moment out of the corner of her eye. 

‘ _Please don’t fry me, please don’t fry me, please don’t fry me.. Hey. IF YOU CAN HEAR THIS, COUGH!_ ’ She mentally continued. As the seconds ticked by, and the normal chit-chat continued, Ruby internally breathed a sigh of relief. She was just beginning to relax when Blake coughed. Though it was a good two minutes after her little experiment, it sent Ruby’s heart racing. ‘ _Oh god, that’s it. I’m done fo-_ ’

“Ruby? Are you okay?” Weiss asked, noticing that the girl had turned as white as a ghost. “Did you start feeling sick?” Ruby shook her head, and mumbled that she was fine. Once Weiss and Blake were satisfied that Ruby was indeed fine, the conversation got back into a relatively normal ebb and flow - with a soft undercurrent of key clicking courtesy of Weiss’ laptop.

***^v^***

“So, that’s it? That’s all you can do?” Yang said into her phone. “I mean, I’m really grateful for everything - trust me. It’s just.. I wish there was more, ya know?” The blonde had an armful of paper grocery bags and her cell phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder.

“I’m frustrated too, but at least we got this much.” Winter said into her desk phone. The Sergeant had it on speaker, so she could work while she talked a little more effectively. “But, without an eye witness or camera footage - like with the assault - we unfortunately can’t charge the boys for anything more than a battery charge. Probably a Class-B or Class-C misdemeanor - I would be shocked if the DA decided to pursue a Class-A charging.”

“And, how serious are those charges? I mean, I watch some ‘Cops’, but I’m not that savvy with how the different charges work.” Yang asked. Muttering to herself, which Winter ignored, she began to fish her keys from her pocket. The dirtied-up mechanic was in the lobby of the apartment she shared with her sister and girlfriend, and wanted to get in the door as soon as possible, after getting off of the elevator.

“Class-C comes with the least severe penalties, and Class-A the most severe. Between all three charges, each of them could face fines between two hundred and five thousand Lien, jail time between thirty days and one and a half years, or a combination of both.” Winter paused in her explanation to let Yang absorb all of the information.

“A year and a half? For what they did to her?” Yang said incredulously, now on the elevator. “Seems like they’re just getting a slap on the wrist, Sergeant.” She was frustrated, clearly, and Winter understood. The officer pursed her lips, and set her pen down after stopping work on the form she was filling out.

“Miss Xiao Long.. Yang. I wish there was more that could be done, I really do. But we don’t have any proof that Ruby was pushed, or that the suspects somehow caused her fall. Without that, my officers and I must assume that she slipped. We can’t charge someone for a crime that we do not have true probable cause to believe they committed. If some new evidence turns up, we **will** make sure that the appropriate charges are considered - but right now, this is all I can do. I’m sorry.” Winter’s tone was both apologetic, and firm. She was always honest with the victims of crimes she was investigating, and their families. They seldom liked her for it at first, but in the end, most of them appreciated her candor.

“I guess we don’t really have a choice but to go with it then.” Yang sighed heavily, wiggling her keys in the lock.

“No, we don’t. I’ll let you know when I hear back from the DA on how we’re going to proceed. Please give your sister my best.” Winter replied.

“Of course. Ah.. Looks like **your** sister is here too. Want me to give it to her too?” Yang asked, looking curiously at the assembled trio before her.

“She is? Well, then, yes - please do.” Winter said, at the same time that Weiss’ eyebrows shot up.

“Give WHAT to me?” Weiss asked incredulously, standing from where she was sitting beside Ruby.

By then, Yang had set the three large bags down, ended her call with Sergeant Schnee (‘Winter’, she reminded herself), and turned to face the others. “So.. What’s going on? Did I miss a text or something?” Yang asked, glancing at Blake and Ruby.

“Weiss called to check up on me, one thing led to another, and here we are!” Ruby explained, not really realizing just how poor of an explanation that was. “She even got me a book of brain teasers!” Proudly, like a kid at Christmas showing their parents a present they got from a relative, Ruby then held the inch-thick book up for Yang to see.

“Uh huh.. And, what are all the steps in that process that Ruby skipped over?” She asked again, looking curiously at the remaining two girls. As Weiss spoke and Blake simply observed, Yang started to unpack the groceries.

“Well, she isn’t lying.” Ruby narrowed her eyes at that, but kept quiet as she worked on a sudoku puzzle. “I hadn’t heard anything from her, or my sister, since she came by to sort things out with HR, so I wanted to know how she was doing.” Weiss paused in her tale to take a drink of her tea, which Yang noted was in a mug that Blake had gotten her for her birthday one year. But, it was already done, no real reason to make an issue of it.

“She mentioned that she was, and I quote from when I got here, ‘so bored that watching paint dry would be more fun’.” Weiss deadpanned, glancing down at her laptop to quickly answer an incoming message. “I’m just glad I stopped to get that book, seems like she was about to wither away from sheer boredom.”

As Blake snickered, and Ruby looked like she wanted to curl in on herself until she disappeared, Yang returned a grin to her unexpected guest. “Guess I oughta thank you for keeping my baby sister healthy then, Schnee.” Two weeks ago, the blonde never would have thought that she could even have a civil conversation with Ruby’s boss, but here they were making small jokes at her expense.

“You guys suck.” Ruby grumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest and hiding her face behind them.

“Says the girl who _asked_ me to come by. Maybe I should just leave you to your misery next time.” Weiss shot back as she made a show of examining the nails on her left hand.

Yang had to hand it to the woman - when she wanted to act like a bitch, she could, even if everyone but Ruby could see that she was just messing with the poor girl. “Man, you’re making me look bad, Rubles. I thought I taught you to be more polite when we have company over..” Yang joined in.

“Oh, come on! Not you too!” Ruby pouted, looking between her sister and her boss before letting her eyes settle on the room’s last occupant. “Blake? Any help?”

The room was quiet for a moment, save for the gentle scratch of paper-on-paper as Blake turned a page in her book. “I don’t know, Ruby..” Blake’s eyes only flicked up for a moment, but the amusement in their amber depths was clear. “Weiss is right. You _did_ ask her to come over, and Yang _tried_ to raise you better. She told me herself.”

“ _This_ is why I always run away.” Ruby grumbled, although the others could tell that she was having a good time in spite of the gentle teasing. Blake and Yang in particular could see that Ruby was in much better spirits now that there was more to occupy her mind.

‘ _Maybe having her around will do some good._ ’ Yang thought. It was tough for her to consider that Ruby could look after herself, especially with the situation she’d gotten herself into - and nearly lost her life in - but, she was seventeen. Hell, she’d be eighteen in a few months. Even with the law saying she’d be an adult then, Yang worried about Ruby’s childishness getting her into more trouble.

But, maybe that was the issue. The two of them had a long way to go to really repair their relationship, but with the help and advice they’d gotten from Dr. Mott, Yang thought that things could definitely improve. Besides, seeing Ruby like this was a breath of fresh air.

‘ _Wait, is it because of WEISS?!_ ’ The mechanic considered, watching her girlfriend, her sister, and her sister’s boss playfully bicker over this and that. ‘ _It’s like something out of a shitty rom-com. Ugh, shoot me now._ ’ Yang griped privately.

“So, will you be staying for dinner, Weiss?” Blake asked, after the group’s more animated conversation had lulled a bit. Both Yang and Weiss looked fairly shocked by her question, but Ruby just furrowed her brow curiously.

“I.. No, but thank you for the offer.” Weiss answered, with a thankful nod of her head. “I appreciate it, but I have plans with my sister tonight.”

“Sounds fun. Maybe another time.” Blake continued casually. Yang was definitely going to have to have a little talk with her better half later. _Yes_ , her name was on the lease too, but Yang felt that inviting a relative stranger over to dinner was something that they should have talked about at least a little bit first. “If you’ll be coming by more, that is.”

“Maybe - if that’s okay with everyone else?” Weiss asked as her eyes panned over the other girls. Yang shrugged in acceptance, and Ruby nodded her assent, which would have to be good enough for Weiss. She already knew she had Blake’s blessing, but she was far from the only one who mattered in that choice.

“I wouldn’t mind having more company.” Ruby tacked on, looking up from the puzzle book Weiss had given her. “I know she - you, sorry - can’t come by all the time, but it’ll let you guys get back to work more.” It was a good point, and one Yang definitely had to consider.

“Well, we don’t have to settle on anything or put a plan in stone right now.” Yang countered. “But, we’ll see how things go, alright?”

Ruby nodded alongside Weiss as her boss rose from her seat. “I should be going - I need to check back in on things, and then go get ready, before tonight.” Weiss explained. “It was good to see you all again.” Though Weiss’ tone was perfectly manicured, Ruby got the sense that she genuinely meant what she said.

“You too! Shoot me a message some time?” She looked down quickly, fiddling with the corner of one of her book pages. Blake narrowed her eyes at the action, having told Ruby many, many, _many_ times that dog-earing pages was a cardinal sin. “I mean.. If you’d like, of course.”

“I think I can arrange that.” Weiss said with a smile. On her way out, after saying her goodbyes to the trio, Weiss nodded her head to each of them in turn before making her way back out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Who knew that all it would take for Ruby to perk up was for her true love to bring her a book and mercilessly tease her along with her sister? She's definitely not out of the woods yet, but I love how these idiots are starting to react to each other.
> 
> On a more serious note, I need to bring up a few things. None of this is said to garner sympathy, it is simply used as context and an explanation for everything. So, up until a week ago I had a pretty good job that allowed me to only work weekends and occasionally pick up a shift or two during the week as needed. That is no longer the case. As has happened with all too many others, the Covid-19 pandemic (whether you agree with whether it's real or not is irrelevant here, that's not the point of this) meant that the small business I worked for could no longer afford to keep me on their staff. So, as it stands right now, I'm job hunting and very strongly considering going back to school.
> 
> What this all means, is that since I cannot predict how my schedule will change and how often I'll be able to write, I will be posting chapters as I finish them, instead of every Friday as a set schedule, for the forseeable future. I love this story, I love writing, and I love interacting with all of my readers - but I have to take care of my real life needs first and foremost. I hope you all can understand, and I hope you're all here when the next segment goes live


	11. Journeys

-Journeys-

“I think it’s a great idea.” Blake said, making Ruby think there was some hope for what she wanted to do.

“I’m not saying it’s  _ not  _ a great idea.” Yang countered, leaning her hip against the counter. Ruby and Blake were in their usual spots - the single-seat couch and the two-person loveseat, respectively - while Yang busied herself in the kitchen. “I just don’t know if you’ll have enough time is all.”

“Well, it’s not like it’d be right now, and it’s not like I’ve got much else going on..” Ruby pointed out. Her book of puzzles was open on her lap, and the teen was twirling a mechanical pencil around in her left hand. It had taken Ruby the majority of the past three weeks since receiving the book to manage such a skill with her non-dominant hand.

“GED classes won’t be starting again until.. March, I think. Since I’ll be eighteen by then, I can’t just re-enroll in school.” Since her forced-hiatus from work had begun, and mainly since she had started talking with Weiss a little more, Ruby had become a little more invested in the idea of actually going back to school. “That’ll give me plenty of time to make sure my arm is at least out of this thing - and to make sure I’m settled back in at work.”

Yang nodded along thoughtfully. She was proud that Ruby actually wanted to get herself back on track in the grand scheme of things, but as one of the two de-facto heads of their household - and Ruby’s sister - she thought it her duty to worry at least a little bit. “Have you talked with your boss about it? Not that you should really need her approval, but she should know if you’re going to have more on your plate.”

“ _ Weiss _ is fine with it.” Ruby went on pointedly. She and Yang definitely had less arguments lately, but the sisters were still very opinionated with each other - and definitely didn’t mind making their voices heard. Honestly, Ruby was surprised at just how  _ easy _ it had been to start smoothing things over.

She’d spent so long being angry, and not even wanting to see a way out, that Ruby had worried the damage she had done to their relationship was irreversible. However, Yang - with a few encouraging nudges from Blake - seemed more than willing to work towards repairing things.

None of the three of them were fools, though. Things still seemed tenuous, as if they were all walking on a razor’s edge - but to Ruby at least, it no longer felt like she was teetering over the brink. Honestly.. If she really thought about it, Ruby thought that she had Weiss to thank for that.

Being thrust so rudely into such a new, and at times hostile, environment forced change upon them all. Weiss, Yang,  _ and _ Ruby. Blake seemed to take everything in stride, as she always did, and Ruby envied her of that quality just like she did with so many others.

“She thinks it’s a great idea. Even if it takes more of my time, she’s willing to lighten up my daily work load to help me deal with it all.” Ruby said casually, clicking some new lead out of the tip of her pencil. “She’s a lot nicer than you give her credit, you know.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.. I get enough of that from Blake.” Yang groaned, earning her a playful smirk from her partner. “ _ Yes _ , she’s nice.  _ Yes _ she’s been great at helping us get back to some sort of normal. I just.. I dunno, it seems like she came out of nowhere, you know? Plus, we’ve only known her a couple of months.”

“Well, if you wanna get technical, I was the one who was flying outta nowhere.” Ruby snickered. “I almost kicked her in the face, after all.” Yang’s sigh of exasperation and Blake’s chuckle only caused Ruby to grin even more like an idiot.

“You have to admit, hun - having Weiss here has helped a lot.” Blake chimed in, keeping the conversation on track. “I don’t really want to think of where we’d be otherwise.” Yang nodded, begrudgingly, as she walked into the den to take a seat next to Blake. As if it was the most natural thing in the world, Yang lifted her girlfriend’s stretched out legs and slid herself under them while she sat down.

All Blake did was shift a little to maintain her comfort, and crossed her ankles in Yang’s lap while the blonde leaned back into the cushions. Ruby rolled her eyes at the casual display of affection, as she always did, but didn’t offer up any teasing. That time. “Yeah, I know. Is she coming over today?” Yang asked, looking over at Ruby.

“Tomorrow.” Ruby answered. Only glancing up for a second from the maze she was working on. “I asked you about it this morning, remember? You said it was okay.”

“Yeah, right.” Yang answered with a nod. “Had kind of a crazy day at work. It always amazes me how  _ stupid _ some people are with their cars..”   
  
Since Blake was occupied with her ever-present book, and Ruby had her puzzles, Yang took the liberty of deciding that it was okay to change the channel to something she liked to watch - as opposed to the background noise the others had on.

While Blake didn’t react at all, Ruby couldn’t resist scrunching her face at Yang’s choice of viewing. “Oh come on, this isn’t that bad..” Yang protested. Ruby just shook her head then, and refocused on what she was working on.

The rest of the day passed in comfortable faux-solitude for each of them, each girl content to relax in their own preferred way. Later on, with a little assistance from Yang, and a lot of embarrassment from Ruby, she got herself all situated and settled into bed for the night.

Just when she was starting to drift off to sleep, Ruby saw her phone screen light up a split second before the vibration shook it across her night stand. Somewhat groggily, Ruby instinctively tried to reach over with her right hand, but luckily, the fact that her arm was immobile triggered her memories, and just why that would be a terrible idea to try and force it. 

With a groan, Ruby rolled on to her back before sitting up. “Stupid arm.. Stupid Cardin..” She growled, and swiped a couple of times at the bedside table before successfully capturing her phone.

‘ _ The hell..? _ ’ Ruby thought, reading the message. The number, and the name next to it, were unmistakable. Weiss. ‘ _ What could she possibly want now. Ugh. _ ’

“ _ Would you like to go out tomorrow?” _ Uhhhh.. What? Was Weiss  _ really _ asking what Ruby tho- “ _ Not like that - I just mean for lunch. Figured you might like some fresh air, if you think you’re up to it.” _ Ohhhhh. That made a lot more sense. Phew. Ruby was really glad that Weiss wasn’t somehow propositioning her, or at least didn’t think she was. She’d had enough awkwardness and embarrassment in the last month to last her about four and a half lifetimes at that point. More would just complicate things.

“ _ No promises, but that sounds like it could be nice. We’d have to stay close to here, though.” _ Ruby sent back. Getting out of the house would be great. Yang and Blake had agreed the week before to start going out, since Ruby was overly antsy, going stir-crazy, and also genuinely felt well enough to do so.

Ruby recognized that it was a good idea for there to be someone with her most of the time. Not for supervision, but just to help her out if she needed it. While the others had offered to start ‘letting her off the leash’ more, so to speak, Ruby had - to everyone else’s surprise - declined their offers. She wouldn’t, and maybe couldn’t, admit that she was.. Well, somewhat scared of being given her freedom back.

For the first time in her life, Ruby found herself wanting to take things at a slower pace. She was in no hurry to rush things and get hurt, or get anyone else hurt. Right then, Ruby felt it was better to simply let life happen, instead of chasing down some undefined goal.

“ _ Of course, that’s more than reasonable. There’s a deli about two blocks away, if that works?” _ Was what Weiss’ next message said. It only took Ruby a few moments of thought to type back an agreement, and to answer a couple following questions about whether she was sure about it, and if she thought she might need any help with things.

On some level, Ruby resented that, but deeper down, she knew that it was a valid question. Hell, she still needed help getting dressed. Were she in Weiss’ position, Ruby would have questioned her capabilities too. Still, Ruby went to bed content, and was even looking forward to the next day.

***^v^***

“Good to see you again, Weiss.” Blake said with a smile, letting the girl into the apartment. In a way, she’d begun to think of the Schnee as Ruby’s caretaker. It was an odd thought, but these days she was around only a little less than she and Yang were.   
  
With a grateful smile, Weiss entered the home, and hovered by the door. “I take it she thought she could get herself dressed again?” Weiss asked, with a bemused smile on her face.   
  
“I can still hear you!” Ruby shouted from her room, getting a laugh from the others - which only caused her to grumble. “Stupid Blake and stupid Weiss. I can handle myself!” She murmured, fighting with her belt and shoes to get them on and secured one handed. Eventually, Ruby succeeded, but not before another minute or four had ticked by.   
  
The escalating friendship between Weiss and Ruby was plain to see for Blake and Yang, and while Yang was just slightly trepidatious, they both thought it was a good thing. While Ruby had never really been a true loner, she’d never made an overly large circle of friends. One or two classmates, sure, but they were only friends while at school.

Yang wanted the best for Ruby, but that line of thinking also came with high standards. Ruby understood where she was coming from, or so she thought, and so did Blake and Weiss. The blonde was playing the role dealt to her, as best she could, and they all thought she could be doing a far worse job.

“Okay! All set.” Ruby said, finally, walking out into the den. Blake and Weiss were still standing and talking by the door, likely about whatever book an author they both enjoyed had just put out. While Ruby liked to read as well, she’d never really had the same tastes as the other girls. Blake preferred ‘romance’ novels, Weiss enjoyed non-fiction historical books, and Ruby had her roots firmly planted in the fantasy and horror genres.

“Oh good - I was about to die of starvation and old age. Not sure which, but one of them was going to get me before long.” Weiss said flippantly, and Ruby rolled her eyes.   
  
“Bite me, Snowflake.” Ruby griped in return, kicking her shoes against the moulding near the apartment door to make sure they were settled well on her feet.

“Not in front of me, please.” Blake piped up. The raven haired girl waved a hand over her shoulder after turning away. “Let me know if you need anything, alright? I’m going out to the store in a bit, but I’ll still be in the area.”

Though her words were muffled by the fact that her face was in her hand, Ruby agreed as she and Weiss made their way out the door and towards the elevator. “Does she always give you trouble?” Weiss asked as the doors dinged shut.

Ruby sighed, but shook her head. “She’s not giving me trouble.” She answered, fiddling with the strap on her cast to make sure it was still nice and secure. “Blake is great - honestly I didn’t expect her to warm up to you so quickly. Usually she’s more.. Reserved. You shoulda seen her when Yang said she was going out for some after-work drinks with her coworkers.”

“So, she’s jealous?” Weiss shrugged, folding her arms. She had a brief urge to lean against one of the elevator walls, but one look at the peeling paint and faded posters tacked to the side made her think that wouldn’t be the smartest idea.

“More like.. Possessive. Kinda like a cat guarding a toy.” Ruby explained. Weiss snorted in amusement, and raised her chin in agreement. “Yang’s happy with her, though, and she’s happy with Yang. I can put up with a little teasing.”

“I never would have figured you for the mature type.” Weiss said with a dry smile. As Ruby complained, the elevator ground to a halt. Walking forwards with purpose, Weiss led her lunch da- guest out of the building and slowly up the street. True to her word, as always, Weiss had picked a chic and quaint - somewhat upscale, but “somewhat” upscale was the least fancy as she was willing to lower her standards to.

“I’ve heard good things about this place.” Ruby said as they entered, and were promptly redirected to a table on the patio with a good view of the street and sidewalk. “Never been in before, though.”

“Neither have I, but, it looked good enough and it was close.” Weiss went on, taking her seat across from Ruby. As the waitress came and went. Once for their drinks, and a second time for their food order, Ruby and Weiss passed the time by just.. Talking. It was refreshing to actually have a conversation outside of her apartment, which Ruby never realized was something she took for granted.

As the day went on and the hours ticked by, Ruby found that she was genuinely enjoying herself. Not that she hadn’t before when Weiss was over to keep her company, but it always struck her how much having someone that was easy to talk to around made a difference in her having a good day.

“So, have you looked into GED programs yet?” Weiss asked after paying. Ruby protested, a little bit, but not enough that she was denied a free meal.

“Some.” Ruby nodded, watching the light at the opposite end of the crosswalk they were currently standing at. “There’s a few online options, but I think I’d rather just go back and try to make it work in person.” She looked down at her arm, and shrugged with her good shoulder. With the light now green, Ruby moved forwards into the intersection with Weiss beside her.

“Besides, with  _ this _ thing on, I can’t really type anyways. Might as well use the time to at least look up what I’ll be tested on.” Ruby continued, and made the turn left onto the street that her apartment building was located on. “I think it’s just basic subjects - math, science, english, and things like that - so it shouldn’t be too bad. I mean, it’s nothing I can’t pass.” Ruby went on, and Weiss listened patiently.

By the time Ruby had finished talking about what she’d researched, the pair were standing outside of the apartment lobby. “Do you have any idea of what you’ll do after that?” Weiss questioned.

“Not totally.” Ruby admitted. “Something with my hands would be great - but not like Yang does. I want to like.. Make things, but not mechanical things.” She kept going with a sigh. It frustrated Ruby that she both knew what she wanted to do and also didn’t. The beginnings of an idea for the rest of her life were there, but the end of the road was clouded.

“So, you want to be an artist.” Weiss said casually, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “The only question is what your medium would be - and if you suggest the walls of my building again, I’ll throw you off of the next building myself.” She deadpanned, but Ruby saw the fleeting ghost of a smile on her lips.

“You’d have to catch me first, Snowflake.” Ruby pointed out. As the pair talked, the lobby disappeared behind them, and all too soon they were exiting the elevator they’d taken up to Ruby’s floor. “I doubt you could manage it in those heels.”

“Wha- I can run just fine in my heels, thank you.” Weiss protested, and Ruby just snickered as she fished her keys out of her pocket.. Only to drop them. “No, don’t let me. If you fall, your sister will kill me.”

“I, ah, thanks Weiss.” Ruby said with a sheepish smile. She accepted her keys back from Weiss when they were offered, and let them both back inside the small apartment Ruby called home.

“You two were gone longer than I thought you’d be.” Blake said casually. Ruby was a mite confused at first, since Blake’s voice didn’t come from her usual seat. ‘ _ Oh, crap, is she invisible now? _ ’ Ruby thought to herself, before her eyes flicked over to the kitchen. ‘ _ Phew! Still just a mind reader. _ ’

Blake gave her a curious look as Ruby pondered things silently, and the girl winced at the all-too-conveniently-timed attention. “You alright?” Weiss asked, and Ruby jumped a little as now  _ both _ of them had their eyes on her. The only thing that would make this worse was-

The door unlocking behind her. With a squeak, Ruby stepped forwards nervously, as Weiss moved forward like a more normal person. “Guys, I’m home!” Yang called out, far too loudly for Weiss’ liking. “Oh! Didn’t really expect you to still be here. Don’t you usually head out once your ‘work day’ is done?” Yang asked, looking at Weiss curiously.

“I took Ruby to lunch, and I lost track of time. Well,  _ we _ did, rather.” Weiss answered, placing a hand on her hip while she spoke to Yang. “Usually I’d have headed home, though, yes.”

“Well, I’m not complaining. Keeps her out of our hair at least.” Yang said, and Ruby sighed. “Chill, sis, I’m just teasing.” The blonde chuckled. Yang stepped past the others to give Blake a kiss on the cheek. “I’m gonna change. You staying, or..?” She continued, flicking her eyes at Weiss.

“No, but thank you. I’ll talk to you soon?” Weiss answered, looking over at her employee and now potential friend.

“Yeah, sounds like a plan.” Ruby nodded, and stepped towards her room. “Thanks for the lunch, Weiss!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! Took me a little while to get back into my groove, but here we are! Got some fun stuff planned for the next chapter or two, probably gonna try and get into a little bit of a better schedule. Hope you all enjoy where this is going!

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Well.. Never thought I'd get here, I'm usually an RPer as opposed to a proper writer. Not a whole lot to say about this first chapter, except to clarify that Ruby is seventeen in this first bit - making the other girls nineteen. I plan on keeping this story going for a while, because I've never been a fan of shorter stories (no offense to those who write them!). Thank you to everyone who might read this, and I hope to keep you coming back to check this out very regularly! I hesitate to promise a regular update schedule, just to keep pressure off of myself - but hopefully something new will be up every couple of weeks


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